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SYMBOLISM OF FREEMASONRY: 

ILLUSTRATING AND EXPLAINING 



BY 



ALBERT G. MACKEY, M. D., 

AUTHOR OF " LEXICON OF FREEMASONRY," " TEXT-BOOK OF MASONIC 

JURISPRUDENCE," " CRYPTIC MASONRY," 

ETC., ETC. 



K Ea enim quse scribuntur tria habere decent, utilitatem prassentem, 
cerium finem, inexpugnctbile fundamentum." 

Card anus. 



New York: 

CLARK AND MAYNARD, 

5 Barclay Street. 

iS6q. 




*' 



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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 
ALBERT G. MACKEY, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of South Carolina. 



/Z-s£r. 



Stereotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, 
No. 19 Spring Lane. 






TO 



GENERAL JOHN C. FREMONT. 

My Dear Sir: 

While any American might be proud of associating 
his name with that of one who has done so much to 
increase the renown of his country, and to enlarge the 
sum of human knowledge, this book is dedicated to you 
as a slight testimonial of regard for your personal char- 
acter, and in grateful recollection of acts of friendship. 

Yours very truly, 

A. G. MACKEY. 




REFACE 



Of the various modes of communicating instruction to the 
uninformed, the masonic student is particularly interested in two; 
namely, the instruction by legends and that by symbols. It is to 
these two, almost exclusively, that he is indebted for all that he 
knows, and for all that he can know, of the philosophic system 
which is taught in the institution. All its mysteries and its dog- 
mas, which constitute its philosophy, are intrusted for communi- 
cation to the neophyte, sometimes to one, sometimes to the other 
of these two methods of instruction, and sometimes to both of 
them combined. The Freemason has no way of reaching any of 
the esoteric teachings of the Order except through the medium 
of a legend or a symbol. 

A legend differs from an historical narrative only in this — that 
it is without documentary evidence of authenticity. It is the off- 
spring solely of tradition. Its details may be true in part or 
in whole. There may be no internal evidence to the contrary, 
or there may be internal evidence that they are altogether false. 
But neither the possibility of truth in the one case, nor the cer- 
tainty of falsehood in the other, can remove the traditional nar- 

3 



4 PREFACE. 

• 
rative from the class of legends. It is a legend simply because 

it rests on no written foundation. It is oral, and therefore 

legendary. 

In grave problems of history, such as the establishment of em- 
pires, the discovery and settlement of countries, or the rise and fall 
of dynasties, the knowledge of the truth or falsity of the legenda- 
ry narrative will be of importance, because the value of history 
is impaired by the imputation of doubt. But it is not so in Free- 
masonry. Here there need be no absolute question of the truth 
or falsity of the legend. The object of the masonic legends is not 
to establish historical facts, but to convey philosophical doctrines. 
They are a method by which esoteric instruction is communicated, 
and the student accepts them with reference to nothing else ex- 
cept their positive use and meaning as developing masonic dog- 
mas. Take, for instance, the Hiramic legend of the third degree. 
Of what importance is it to the disciple of Masonry whether it 
be true or false? All that he wants to know is its internal signi- 
fication ; and when he learns that it is intended to illustrate the 
doctrine of the immortality of the soul, he is content with that 
interpretation, and he does not deem it necessary, except as a mat- 
ter of curious or antiquarian inquiry, to investigate its historical 
accuracy, or to reconcile any of its apparent contradictions. So 
of the lost keystone ; so of the second temple ; so of the hidden 
ark : these are to him legendary narratives, which, like the casket, 
would be of no value were k not for the precious jewel contained 
within. Each of these legends is the expression of a philosoph- 
ical idea. 

But there is another method of masonic instruction, and that 
is by symbols. No science is more ancient than that of symbol- 
ism. At one time, nearly all the learning of the world was con- 
veyed in symbols. And although modern philosophy now deals 
only in abstract propositions, Freemasonry still cleaves to the 



PREFACE. 5 

ancient method, and has preserved it in its primitive importance 
as a means of communicating knowledge. 

According to the derivation of the word from the Greek, " to 
symbolize" signifies "to compare one thing with another." 
Hence a symbol is the expression of an idea that has been de- 
rived from the comparison or contrast of some object with a moral 
conception or attribute. Thus we say that the plumb is a symbol 
of rectitude of conduct. The physical qualities of the plumb are 
here compared or contrasted with the moral conception of virtue, 
or rectitude. Then to the Speculative Mason it becomes, after he 
has been taught its symbolic meaning, the visible expression of 
the idea of moral uprightness. 

But although there are these two modes of instruction in Free- 
masonry, — by legends and by symbols, — there really is no radi- 
cal difference between the two methods. The symbol is a visible, 
and the legend an audible representation of some contrasted idea 
— of some moral conception produced from a comparison. Both 
the legend and the symbol relate to dogmas of a deep religious 
character; both of them convey moral sentiments in the same 
peculiar method, and both of them are designed by this method 
to illustrate the philosophy of Speculative Masonry. 

To investigate the recondite meaning of these legends and 
symbols, and to elicit from them the moral and philosophical les- 
sons which they were intended to teach, is to withdraw the veil 
with which ignorance and indifference seek to conceal the true 
philosophy of Freemasonry. 

To study the symbolism of Masonry is the only way to inves- 
tigate its philosophy. This is the portal of its temple, through 
which alone we can gain access to the sacellum where its apor- 
rheta are concealed. 

Its philosophy is engaged in the consideration of propositions 
relating to £ nd man, to the present and the future life. Its 



6 PREFACE. 

science is the syrrbolism by which these propositions are present- 
ed to the mind. 

The work now offered to the public is an effort to develop and 
explain this philosophy and science. It will show that there are 
in Freemasonry the germs of profound speculation. If it does 
not interest the learned, it may instruct the ignorant. If so, I 
shall not regret the labor and research that have been bestowed 
upon its composition. 

ALBERT G. MACKEY, M. D. 

Charleston, S. C, Feb. 22, 1869. 




Contents. 



page 

I. Preliminary 9 

II. The Noachidce 22 

III. The Primitive Freemasonry of Antiquity. . . 26 

IV. The Spurious Freemasonry of Antiquity. . . 32 
V. The Ancient Mysteries. ...... 39 

VI. The Dionysiac Artificers. ...... 45 

VII. The Union of Speculative and Operative Masonry 

at the Temple of Solomon 58 

VIII. The Travelling Freemasons of the Middle Ages. 62 

IX. Disseverance of the Operative Element. 66 

X. The System of Symbolic Instruction. . . . 71 

XI. The Speculative Science and the Operative Art. . 77 

XII. The Symbolism of Solomon's Temple. . . 85 

XIII. The Form of the Lodge 100 

XIV. The Officers of a Lodge 106 

XV. The Point within a Circle in 

XVI. The Covering of the Lodge. • • • . 117 

XVII. Ritualistic Symbolism . 123 

XVIII. The Rite of Discalceation 125 

7 



8 



CONTENTS. 



XIX. The Rite of Investiture. ..... 130 

XX. The Symbolism of the Gloves 136 

XXI. The Rite of Circumambulation 142 

XXII. The Rile of Intrusting, and the Symbolism of 

Light . . . .147 

XXIII. Symbolism of the Corner-stone. . . . 159 

XXIV. The Ineffable Name 176 

XXV. The Legends of Freemasonry 198 

XXVI. The Legend of the Winding Stairs. . . .215 

XXVII. The Legend of the Third Degree. ... 228 

XXVIII. The S$rig of Acacia 247 

XXIX. The Symbolism of Labor 263 

XXX. The Stone of Foundation .281 

XXXI. The Lost Word. 300 

Synoptical Index 313 




PRELIMINARY. 



THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF FREEMASONRY. 




NY inquiry into the symbolism and philosophy 
of Freemasonry must necessarily be preceded by 
a brief investigation of the origin and history of 
the institution. Ancient and universal as it is, 
whence did it arise? What were the accidents connected 
with its birth? From what kindred or similar association 
did it spring? Or was it original and autochthonic, in- 
dependent, in its inception, of any external influences, 
and unconnected with any other institution? These are 
questions which an intelligent investigator will be dis- 
posed to propound in the very commencement of the 
inquiry ; and they are questions which must be distinctly 
answered before he can be expected to comprehend its 
true character as a symbolic institution. He must know 
something of its antecedents before he can appreciate its 
character. 

But he who expects to arrive at a satisfactory solution 
of this inquiry must first — as a preliminary absolutely 



IO THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 

necessary to success — release himself from the influence 
of an error into which novices in Masonic philosophy are 
too apt to fall. He must not confound the doctrine of 
Freemasonry with its outward and extrinsic form. He 
must not suppose that certain usages and ceremonies, 
which exist at this day, but which, even now, are subject 
to extensive variations in different countries, constitute the 
sum and substance of Freemasonry. " Prudent antiqui- 
ty," says Lord Coke, " did for more solemnity and better 
memory and observation of that which is to be done, 
express substances under ceremonies." But it must be 
always remembered that the ceremony is not the sub- 
stance. It is but the outer garment which covers and 
perhaps adorns it, as clothing does the human figure. 
But divest man of that outward apparel, and you still 
have the microcosm, the wondrous creation, with all his 
nerves, and bones, and muscles, and, above all, with his 
brain, and thoughts, and feelings. And so take from Ma- 
sonry these external ceremonies, and you still have re- 
maining its philosophy and science. These have, of 
course, always continued the same, while the ceremonies 
have varied in different ages, and still vary in different 
countries. 

The definition of Freemasonry that it is " a science of 
morality, veiled in allegory, and illustrated by symbols," 
has been so often quoted, that, were it not for its beauty, 
it would become wearisome. But this definition contains 
the exact principle that has just been enunciated. Free- 
masonry is a science — a philosophy — a system of doc- 
trines which is taught, in a manner peculiar to itself, by 
allegories and symbols. This is its internal character. 
Its ceremonies are external additions, which affect not its 
substance. 



OF FREEMASONRY. II 

Now, when we are about to institute an inquiry into 
the origin of Freemasonry, it is of this peculiar system 
of philosophy that we are to inquire, and not of the cere- 
monies which have been foisted on it. If we pursue any 
other course we shall assuredly fall into error. 

Thus, if we seek the origin and first beginning of the 
Masonic philosophy, we must go away back into the ages 
of remote antiquity, when we shall find this beginning in 
the bosom of kindred associations, where the same phi- 
losophy was maintained and taught. . But if we confound 
the ceremonies of Masonry with the philosophy of Mason- 
ry, and seek the origin of the institution, moulded into 
outward form as it is to-day, we can scarcely be required 
to look farther back than the beginning of the eighteenth 
century, and, indeed, not quite so far. For many impor- 
tant modifications have been made in its rituals since that 
period. 

Having, then, arrived at the conclusion that it is not 
the Masonic ritual, but the Masonic philosophy, whose 
origin we are to investigate, the next question naturally 
relates to the peculiar nature of that philosophy. 

Now, then, I contend that the philosophy of Freema- 
sonry is engaged in the contemplation of the divine and 
human character ; of God as one eternal, self-existent 
being, in contradiction to the mythology of the ancient 
peoples, which was burdened with a multitude of gods 
and goddesses, of demigods and heroes ; of man as an 
immortal being, preparing in the present life for an eter- 
nal future, in like contradiction to the ancient philosophy, 
which circumscribed the existence of man to the pres- 
ent life. 

These two doctrines, then, of the unity of God and the 



12 THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 

immortality of the soul, constitute the philosophy of Free- 
masonry. When we wish to define it succinctly, we say 
that it is an ancient system of philosophy which teaches 
these two dogmas. And hence, if, amid the intellectual 
darkness and debasement of the old polytheistic religions, 
we find interspersed here and there, in all ages, certain 
institutions or associations which taught these truths, and 
that, in a particular way, allegorically and symbolically, 
then we have a right to say that such institutions or 
associations were the incunabula — the predecessors — 
of the Masonic institution as it now exists. 

With these preliminary remarks the reader will be 
enabled to enter upon the consideration of that theory 
of the origin of Freemasonry which I advance in the 
following propositions : — 

i. In the first place, I contend that in the very earliest 
ages of the world there were existent certain truths 
of vast importance to the welfare and happiness of hu- 
manity, which had been communicated, — no matter 
how, but, — most probably, by direct inspiration from 
God to man. 

2. These truths principally consisted in the abstract 
propositions of the unity of God and the immortality of 
the soul. Of the truth of these two propositions there 
cannot be a reasonable doubt. The belief in these truths 
is a necessary consequence of that religious sentiment 
which has always formed an essential feature of human 
nature. Man is, emphatically, and in distinction from all 
other creatures, a religious animal. Gross commences 
his interesting work on " The Heathen Religion in its 
Popular and Symbolical Development " by the statement 
that " one of the most remarkable phenomena of the 



OF FREEMASONRY. 1 3 

human race is the universal existence of religious ideas — 
a belief in something supernatural and divine, and a 
worship corresponding to it." As nature had implanted 
the religious sentiment, the same nature must have di- 
rected it in a proper channel. The belief and the wor- 
ship must at first have been as pure as the fountain whence 
they flowed, although, in subsequent times, and before the 
advent of Christian light, they may both have been cor- 
rupted by the influence of the priests and the poets over 
an ignorant and superstitious people. The first and sec- 
ond propositions of my theory refer only to that primeval 
period which was antecedent to these corruptions, of 
which I shall hereafter speak. 

3. These truths of God and immortality were most 
probably handed down through the line of patriarchs 
of the race of Seth, but were, at all events, known to 
Noah, and were by him communicated to his immediate 
descendants. 

4. In consequence of this communication, the true 
worship of God continued, for some time after the sub- 
sidence of the deluge, to be cultivated by the Noachidae, 
the Noachites, or the descendants of Noah. 

5. At a subsequent period (no matter when, but the 
biblical record places it at the attempted building of the 
tower of Babel), there was a secession of a large number 
of the human race from the Noachites. 

6. These seceders rapidly lost sight of the divine truths 
which had been communicated to them from their com- 
mon ancestor, and fell into the most grievous theological 
errors, corrupting the purity of the worship and the 
orthodoxy of the religious faith which they had prima- 
rily received. 



14 THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 

7. These truths were preserved in their integrity by 
but a very few in the patriarchal line, while still fewer 
were enabled to retain only dim and glimmering por- 
tions of the true light. 

8. The first class was confined to the direct descend- 
ants of Noah, and the second was to be found among 
the priests and philosophers, and, perhaps, still later, 
among the poets of the heathen nations, and among 
those whom they initiated into the secrets of these truths. 
Of the prevalence of these religious truths among the 
patriarchal descendants of Noah, we have ample evi- 
dence in the sacred records. As to their existence 
among a body of learned heathens, we have the testi- 
mony of many intelligent writers who have devoted their 
energies to this subject. Thus the learned Grote, in 
his " History of Greece," says, " The allegorical inter- 
pretation of the myths has been, by several learned 
investigators, especially by Creuzer, connected with the 
hypothesis of an ancient and highly i?zstructed body 
of priests, having their origin either in Egypt or in the 
East, and communicating to the rude and barbarous 
Greeks religious, physical, and historical knowledge, 
under the veil of symbols" What is here said only 
of the Greeks is equally applicable to every other intel- 
lectual nation of antiquity. 

9. The system or doctrine of the former class has been 
called by Masonic writers the " Pure or Primitive Free- 
masonry " of antiquity, and that of the latter class the 
" Spurious Freemasonry " of the same period. These 
terms were first used, if I mistake not, by Dr. Oliver, 
and are intended to refer — the word pure to the doc- 
trines taught by the descendants of Noah in the Jewish 

\ 



OF FREEMASONRY. 1 5 

line, and the word spurious to his descendants in the 
heathen or Gentile line. 

10. The masses of the people, among the Gentiles 
especially, were totally unacquainted with this divine 
truth, which was the foundation stone of both species of 
Freemasonry, the pure and the spurious, and were deeply 
immersed in the errors and falsities of heathen belief and 
worship. 

ii. These errors of the heathen religions were not 
the voluntary inventions of the peoples who cultivated 
them, but were gradual and almost unavoidable corrup- 
tions of the truths which had been at first taught by 
Noah ; and, indeed, so palpable are these corruptions, that 
they can be readily detected and traced to the original 
form from which, however much they might vary among 
different peoples, they had, at one time or another, devi- 
ated. Thus, in the life and achievements of Bacchus or 
Dionysus, we find the travestied counterpart of the career 
of Moses, and in the name of Vulcan, the blacksmith 
god, we evidently see an etymological corruption of the 
appellation of Tubal Cain, the first artificer in metals. 
For Vul-can is but a modified form of Baal- Cain, the 
god Gain. 

12. But those among the masses — and there were some 
— who were made acquainted with the truth, received their 
knowledge by means of an initiation into certain sacred 
Mysteries, in the bosom of which it was concealed from 
the public gnze. 

13. These Mysteries existed in every country of hea- 
thendom, in each under a different name, and to some 
extent under a different form, but always and everywhere 
with the same design of inculcating, by allegorical and 



1 6 THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 

symbolic teachings, the great Masonic doctrines of the 
unity of God and the immortality of the soul. This is 
an important proposition, and the fact which it enunciates 
must never be lost sight of in any inquiry into the origin 
of Freemasonry ; for the pagan Mysteries were to the 
spurious Freemasonry of antiquity precisely what the 
Masters' lodges are to the Freemasonry of the present 
day. It is needless to offer any proof of their existence, 
since this is admitted and continually referred to by all 
historians, ancient and modern ; and to discuss minutely 
their character and organization would occupy a distinct 
treatise. The Baron de Sainte Croix has written two 
large volumes on the subject, and yet left it unexhausted. 

14. These two divisions of the Masonic Institution 
which were defined in the 9th proposition, namely, the 
pure or primitive Freemasonry among the Jewish de- 
scendants of the patriarchs, who are called, by way of 
distinction, the Noachites, or descendants of Noah, be- 
cause they had not forgotten nor abandoned the teachings 
of their great ancestor, and the spurious Freemasonry 
practised among the pagan nations, flowed down the 
stream of time in parallel currents, often near together, 
but never commingling. 

15. But these two currents were not always to be kept 
apart, for, springing, in the long anterior ages, from one 
common fountain, — that ancient priesthood of whom I 
have already spoken in the 8th proposition, — and then 
dividing into the pure and spurious Freemasonry of 
antiquity, and remaining separated for centuries upon 
centuries, they at length met at the building of the great 
temple of Jerusalem, and w T ere united, in the instance 
of the Israelites under King Solomon, and the Tyrians 



OF FREEMASONRY. I *J 

under Hiram, King of Tyre, and Hiram Abif. The 
spurious Freemasonry, it is true, did not then and there 
cease to exist. On the contrary, it lasted for centuries 
subsequent to this period ; for it was not until long after, 
and in the reign of the Emperor Theodosius, that the 
pagan Mysteries were finally and totally abolished. But 
by the union of the Jewish or pure Freemasons and the 
Tyrian or spurious Freemasons at Jerusalem, there was a 
mutual infusion of their respective doctrines and ceremo- 
nies, which eventually terminated in the abolition of the 
two distinctive systems and the establishment of a new 
one, that may be considered as the immediate prototype 
of the present institution. Hence many Masonic stu- . 
dents, going no farther back in their investigations than 
the facts announced in this 15th proposition, are content 
to find the origin of Freemasonry at the temple of Solo- 
mon. But if my theory be correct, the truth is, that it 
there received, not its birth, but only a new modification 
of its character. The legend of the third degree — the 
golden legend, the legenda aurea — of Masonry was 
there adopted by pure Freemasonry, which before had 
no such legend, from spurious Freemasonry. But the 
legend had existed under other names and forms, in all 
the Mysteries, for ages before. The doctrine of immor- 
tality, which had hitherto been taught by the Noachites 
simply as an abstract proposition, was thenceforth to be 
inculcated by a symbolic lesson — the symbol of Hiram 
the Builder was to become forever after the distinctive 
feature of Freemasonry. 

16. But another important modification was effected in 
the Masonic system at the building of the temple. Pre- 
vious to the union which then took place, the pure Free- 
2 



1 8 THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 

masonry of the Noachites had always been speculative, 
but resembled the present organization in no other way 
than in the cultivation of the same abstract principles of 
divine truth. 

17. The Tyrians, on the contrary, were architects by 
profession, and, as their leaders were disciples of the 
school of the spurious Freemasonry, they, for the first 
time, at the temple of Solomon, when they united with 
their Jewish contemporaries, infused into the speculative 
science, which was practised by the latter, the elements 
of an operative art. 

iS. Therefore the system continued thenceforward, for 
ages, to present the commingled elements of operative 
and speculative Masonry. We see this in the Collegia 
Fabrorum, or Colleges of Artificers, first established at 
Rome by Numa, and which were certainly of a Masonic 
form in their organization ; in the Jewish sect of the Es- 
senes, who wrought as well as prayed, and who are 
claimed to have been the descendants of the temple build- 
ers, and also, and still more prominently, in the Travelling 
Freemasons of the middle ages, who identify themselves 
by their very name with their modern successors, and 
whose societies were composed of learned men who 
thought and wrote, and of workmen who labored and 
built. And so for a long time Freemasonry continued to 
be both operative and speculative. 

19. But another change was to be effected in the insti- 
tution to make it precisely what it now is, and, therefore, 
at a very recent period (comparatively speaking), the 
operative feature was abandoned, and Freemasonry be- 
came wholly speculative. The- exact time of this change 
is not left to conjecture. It took place in the reign of 



OF FREEMASONRY. IO, 

Queen Anne, of England, in the beginning of the eigh- 
teenth century. Preston gives us the very words of the 
decree which established this change, for he says that at 
that time it was agreed to " that the privileges of Masonry 
should no longer be restricted to operative Masons, but 
extend to men of various professions, provided they were 
regularly approved and initiated into the order." 

The nineteen propositions here announced contain a 
brief but succinct view of the progress of Freemasonry 
from its origin in the early ages of the world, simply as a 
system of religious philosophy, through all the modifica- 
tions to which it was submitted in the Jewish and Gentile 
races, until at length it was developed in its present per- 
fected form. During all this time it preserved unchange- 
ably certain features that may hence be considered as its 
specific characteristics, by which it has always been dis- 
tinguished from every other contemporaneous association, 
however such association may have simulated it in out- 
ward form. These characteristics are, first, the doctrines 
which it has constantly taught, namely, that of the unity 
of God and that of the immortality of the soul ; and, sec- 
ondly, the manner in which these doctrines have been 
taught, namely, by symbols and allegories. 

Taking these characteristics as the exponents of what 
Freemasonry is, we cannot help arriving at the conclu- 
sion that the speculative Masonry of the present day ex- 
hibits abundant evidence of the identity of its origin with 
the spurious Freemasonry of the ante-Solomonic period, 
both systems coming from the same pure source, but the 
one always preserving, and the other continually corrupt- 
ing, the purity of the common fountain. This is also the 
necessary conclusion as a corollary from the propositions 
advanced in this essay. 



20 THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 

There is also abundant evidence in the history, of which 
these propositions are but a meagre outline, that a mani- 
fest influence was exerted on the pure or primitive Free- 
masonry of the Noachites by the Tyrian branch of the 
spurious system, in the symbols, myths, and legends 
which the former received from the latter, but which it so 
modified and interpreted as to make them consistent with 
its own religious system. One thing, at least, is inca- 
pable of refutation ; and that is, that we are indebted to 
the Tyrian Masons for the introduction of the symbol of 
Hiram Abif. The idea of the symbol, although modified 
by the Jewish Masons, is not Jewish in its inception. It 
was evidently borrowed from the pagan mysteries, where 
Bacchus, Adonis, Proserpine, and a host of other apothe- 
osized beings play the same role that Hiram does in the 
Masonic mysteries. 

And lastly, we find in the technical terms of Masonry, 
in its working tools, in the names of its grades, and in 
a large majority of its symbols, ample testimony of the 
strong infusion into its religious philosophy of the ele- 
ments of an operative art. And history again explains 
this fact by referring to the connection of the institution 
with the Dionysiac Fraternity of Artificers, who were en- 
gaged in building the temple of Solomon, with the Work- 
men's Colleges of Numa, and with the Travelling Free- 
masons of the middle ages, who constructed all the great 
buildings of that period; 

These nineteen propositions, which have been submit- 
ted in the present essay, constitute a brief summary or 
outline of a theory of the true origin of Freemasonry, 
which long and patient investigation has led me to adopt. 
To attempt to prove the truth of each of these proposi- 



OF FREEMASONRY. ~„ 

2 3 

tions in its order by logical demonstration, or by histori- 
cal evidence, would involve the writing of an elaborate 
treatise. They are now offered simply as suggestions on 
which the Masonic student may ponder. They are but 
intended as guide-posts, which may direct him in his 
journey should he undertake the pleasant although diffi- 
cult task of instituting an inquiry into the origin and prog- 
ress of Freemasonry from its birth to its present state of 
full-grown manhood. 

But even in this abridged form they are absolutely ne- 
cessary as preliminary to any true understanding of the 
symbolism of Freemasonry. 



20 




II 



THE NOACHID^;, 




PROCEED, then, to inquire into the historical 
origin of Freemasonry, as a necessary introduc- 
tion to any inquiry into the character of its sym- 
bolism. To do this, with any expectation of 
rendering justice to the subject, it is evident that I shall 
have to take my point of departure at a very remote era. 
I shall, however, review the early and antecedent histo- 
ry of the institution with as much brevity as a distinct 
understanding of the subject will admit. 

Passing over all that is within the antediluvian history 
of the world, as something that exerted, so far as our sub- 
ject is concerned, no influence on the new world which 
sprang forth from the ruins of the old, we find, soon after 
the cataclysm, the immediate descendants of Noah in the 
possession of at least two religious truths, which they 
received from their common father, and which he must 
have derived from the line of patriarchs who preceded 
him. These truths were the doctrine of the existence of 
a Supreme Intelligence, the Creator, Preserver, and Ruler 
of the Universe, and, as a necessary corollary, the belief 



THE NOACHID^E. 23 

in the immortality of the soul,* which, as an emanation 
from that primal cause, was to be distinguished, by a 
future and eternal life, from the vile and perishable dust 
which forms its earthly tabernacle. 

The assertion that these doctrines were known to and 
recognized by Noah will not appear as an assumption 
to the believer in divine revelation. But any philosophic 
mind must, I conceive, come to the same conclusion, 
independently of any other authority than that of reason. 

The religious sentiment, so far, at least, as it relates to 
the belief in the existence of God, appears to be in some 
sense innate, or instinctive, and consequently universal in 
the human mind.f There is no record of any nation, - 
however intellectually and morally debased, that has not 
given some evidence of a tendency to such belief. The 
sentiment may be perverted, the idea may be grossly cor- 
rupted, but it is nevertheless there, and shows the source 
whence it sprang.]: 

* " The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, if it is a real 
advantage, follows unavoidably from the idea of God. The best 
Being, he must will the best of good things ; the -wisest, he must 
devise plans for that effect; the most powerful, he must bring it 
about. None can deny this." — Theo. Parker, Discourse of 
Matters pertai?iing to Religion, b. ii. ch. viii. p. 205. 

t "This institution of religion, like society, friendship, and mar- 
riage, comes out of a principle, deep and permanent in the heart: 
as humble, and transient, and partial institutions come out of 
humble, transient, and partial wants, and are to be traced to the 
senses and the phenomena of life, so this sublime, permanent, 
and useful institution came out from sublime, permanent, and 
universal wants, and must be referred to the soul, and the un- 
changing realities of life." — Parker, Discourse of Religion, b. i. 
ch. i. p. 14. 

\ " The sages of all nations, ages, and religions had some ideas 
of these sublime doctrines, though more or less degraded, adul- 



24 THE NOACHID^E. 

Even in the most debased forms of fetichism, where 
the negro kneels in reverential awe before the shrine of 
some uncouth and misshapen idol, which his own hands, 
perhaps, have made, the act of adoration, degrading as 
the object may be, is nevertheless an acknowledgment of 
the longing need of the worshipper to throw himself upon 
the support of some unknown power higher than his own 
sphere. And this unknown power, be it what it may, is 
to him a God.* 

But just as universal has been the belief in the immor- 
tality of the soul. This arises from the same longing in 
man for the infinite ; and although, like the former doc- 
trine, it has been perverted and corrupted, there exists 
among all nations a tendency to its acknowledgment. 
Every people, from the remotest times, have wandered 
involuntarily into the ideal of another world, and sought 
to find a place for their departed spirits. The deification 
of the dead, man-worship, or hero-worship, the next 
development of the religious idea after fetichism, was 
simply an acknowledgment of the belief in a future life ; 



terated and obscured ; and these scattered hints and vestiges of 
the most sacred and exalted truths were originally rays and ema- 
nations of ancient and primitive traditions, handed down from 
generation to generation, since the beginning of the world, or at 
least since the fall of man, to all mankind." — Chev. Ramsay, 
Philos. Priiic. of Nat. and Rev. Relig., vol. ii. p. 8. 

* " In this form, not only the common objects above enumerated, 
but gems, metals, stones that fell from heaven, images, carved bits 
of wood, stuffed skins of beasts, like the medicine-bags of the 
North American Indians, are reckoned as divinities, and so 
become objects of adoration. But in this case, the visible object 
is idealized; not worshipped as the brute thing really is, but as 
the type and symbol of God." — Parker, Disc, of Relig., b. i. 
ch. v. p. 50. 



THE NOACHID^E. 25 

for the dead could not have been deified unless after death 
they had continued to live. The adoration of a putrid 
carcass would have been a form of fetichism lower and 
more degrading than any that has yet been discovered. 
But man-worship came after fetichism. It was a higher 
development of the religious sentiment, and included a 
possible hope for, if not a positive belief in, a future life. 

Reason, then, as well as revelation, leads us irresistibly 
to the conclusion that these two doctrines prevailed among 
the descendants of Noah, immediately after the deluge. 
They were believed, too, in all their purity and integrity, 
because they were derived from the highest and purest 
source. 

These are the doctrines which still constitute the creed 
of Freemasonry ; and hence one of the names bestowed 
upon the Freemasons from the earliest times was that of 
the " Noachidcz" or "Noachites" that is to say r the 
descendants of Noah, and the transmitters of his religious 
dogmas. 




III. 



THE PRIMITIVE FREEMASONRY OF ANTIQUITY. 

/^^HE next important historical epoch which de- 
/| mands our attention is that connected with what, 
\£_,y in sacred history, is known as the dispersion at 
Babel. The brightness of truth, as it had been com- 
municated by Noah, became covered, as it were, with a 
cloud. The dogmas of the unity of God and the im- 
mortality of the soul were lost sight of, and the first devia- 
tion from the true worship occurred in the establishment 
of Sabianism, or the worship of the sun, moon, and stars, 
among some peoples, and the deification of men among 
others. Of these two deviations, Sabianism, or sun-wor- 
ship, was both the earlier and the more generally dif- 
fused.* " It seems," says the learned Owen, " to have 



* A recent writer thus eloquently refers to the universality, in an- 
cient times, of sun-worship : *' Sabaism, the worship of light, pre- 
vailed amongst all the leading nations of the early world. By the 
rivers of India, on the mountains of Persia, in the plains of As- 
syria, early mankind thus adored, the higher spirits in each coun- 
try rising in spiritual thought from the solar orb up to Him whose 
vicegerent it seems — to the Sun of all being, whose divine light 
irradiates and purifies the world of soul, as the solar radiance does 
the world of sense. Egypt, too, though its faith be but dimly 

26 



THE PRIMITIVE FREEMASONRY OF ANTIQUITY. 2*] 

had its rise from some broken traditions conveyed by the 
patriarchs touching the dominion of the sun by day and 
of the moon by night." The mode in which this old 
system has been modified and spiritually symbolized by 
Freemasonry will be the subject of future consideration. 

But Sabianism, while it was the most ancient of the 
religious corruptions, was, I have said, also the most 
generally diffused ; and hence, even among nations which 
afterwards adopted the polytheistic creed of deified men 
and factitious gods, this ancient sun-worship is seen to be 
continually exerting its influences. Thus, among the 
Greeks, the most refined people that cultivated hero- 
worship, Hercules was the sun, and the .mythologies, 
fable of his destroying with his arrows the many-headed 
hydra of the Lernaean marshes was but an allegory to 
denote the dissipation of paludal malaria by the purifying 
rays of the orb of day. Among the Egyptians, too, the 
chief deity, Osiris, was but another name for the sun, 

known to us, joined in this worship; Syria raised her grand tem- 
ples to the sun ; the joyous Greeks sported with the thought while 
feeling it, almost hiding it under the mythic individuality which 
their lively fancy superimposed upon it. Even prosaic China 
makes offerings to the yellow orb of day ; the wandering Celts and 
Teutons held feasts to it, amidst the primeval forests of Northern 
Europe; and, with a savagery characteristic of the American abo- 
rigines, the sun temples of Mexico streamed with human blood in 
honor of the beneficent orb." — The Castes and Creeds of India, 
Blackw. Mag., vol. lxxxi. p. 317. — "There is no people whose 
religion is known to us," says the Abbe Banier, "neither in our 
own continent nor in that of America, that has not paid the sun 
a religious worship, if we except some inhabitants of the torrid 
zone, who are continually cursing the sun for scorching them with 
his beams." — Mythology, lib. iii. ch. iii. — Macrobius, in his Satur- 
nalia, undertakes to prove that all the gods of Paganism may be 
reduced to the sun. 



28 THE PRIMITIVE FREEMASONRY OF ANTIQUITY. 

while his arch-enemy and destroyer, Typhon, was the 
typification of night, or darkness. And lastly, among 
the Hindus, the three manifestations of their supreme 
deity, Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu, were symbols of the 
rising, meridian, and setting sun. 

This early and very general prevalence of the senti- 
ment of sun-worship is worthy of especial attention on 
account of the influence that it exercised over the 
spurious Freemasonry of antiquity, of which I am soon 
to speak, and which is still felt, although modified and 
Christianized in our modern system. Many, indeed 
nearly all, of the masonic symbols of the present day 
can only be thoroughly comprehended and properly 
appreciated by this reference to sun-worship. 

This divine truth, then, of the existence of one Su- 
preme God, the Grand Architect of the Universe, symbol- 
ized in Freemasonry as the true word, was lost to the 
Sabians and to the polytheists who arose after the dis- 
persion at Babel, and with it also disappeared the doc- 
trine of a future life ; and hence, in one portion of the 
masonic ritual, in allusion to this historic fact, we speak 
of " the lofty tower of Babel, where language was con- 
founded and Masonry lost." 

There were, however, some of the builders on the 
plain of Shinar who preserved these great religious and 
masonic doctrines of the unity of God and the immortal- 
ity of the soul in their pristine purity. These were the 
patriarchs, in whose venerable line they continued to be 
taught. Hence, years after the dispersion of the nations 
at Babel, the world presented two great religious sects, 
passing onward down the stream of time, side by side, 



THE PRIMITIVE FREEMASONRY OF ANTIQUITY. 20. 

yet as diverse from each other as light from darkness, and 
truth from falsehood. 

One of these lines of religious thought and sentiment 
was the idolatrous and pagan world. With it all 
masonic doctrine, at least in its purity, was extinct, 
although there mingled with it, and at times to some 
extent influenced it, an offshoot from the other line, to 
which attention will be soon directed. 

The second of these lines consisted, as has already 
been said, of the patriarchs and priests, who preserved in 
all their purity the two great masonic doctrines of the 
unity of God and the immortality of the soul. 

This line embraced, then, what, in the language of- 
recent masonic writers, has been designated as the 
Primitive Freemasonry of Antiquity. 

Now, it is by no means intended to advance any such 
gratuitous and untenable theory as that proposed by 
some imaginative writers, that the Freemasonry of the 
patriarchs was in its organization, its ritual, or its symbol- 
ism, like the system which now exists. We know not, 
indeed, that it had a ritual, or even a symbolism. I am 
inclined to think that it was made up of abstract proposi- 
tions, derived from antediluvian traditions. Dr. Oliver 
thinks it probable that there were a few symbols among 
these Primitive and Pure Freemasons, and he enumerates 
among them the serpent, the triangle, and the point 
within a circle ; but I can find no authority for the sup- 
position, nor do I think it fair to claim for the order more 
than it is fairly entitled to, nor more than it can be fairly 
proved to possess. When Anderson calls Moses a Grand 
Master, Joshua his Deputy, and Aholiab and Bezaleel 



30 THE PRIMITIVE FREEMASONRY OF ANTIQUITY. 

Grand Wardens, the expression is to be looked upon 
simply as a J"ago?i de farler, a mode of speech entirely 
figurative in its character, and by no means intended to 
convey the idea which is entertained in respect to officers 
of that character in the present system. It would, un- 
doubtedly, however, have been better that such language 
should not have been used. 

All that can be claimed for the system of Primitive 
Freemasonry, as practised by the patriarchs, is, that it 
embraced and taught the two great dogmas of Free- 
masonry, namely, the unity of God, and the immortality 
of the soul. It may be, and indeed it is highly proba- 
ble, that there was a secret doctrine, and that this doc- 
trine was not indiscriminately communicated. We know 
that Moses, who was necessarily the recipient of the 
knowledge of his predecessors, did not publicly teach the 
doctrine of the immortality of the soul. But there was 
among the Jews an oral or secret law which was never 
committed to writing until after the captivity ; and this 
law, I suppose, may have contained the recognition of 
those dogmas of the Primitive Freemasonry. 

Briefly, then, this system of Primitive Freemasonry, — 
without ritual or symbolism, that has come down to us, 
at least, — consisting solely of traditionary legends, teach- 
ing only the two great truths already alluded to, and 
being wholly speculative in its character, without the 
slightest infusion of an operative element, was regularly 
transmitted through the Jewish line of patriarchs, priests, 
and kings, without alteration, increase, or diminution, to 
the time of Solomon, and the building of the temple at 
Jerusalem. 

Leaving it, then, to pursue this even course of descent, 



§ 



THE PRIMITIVE FREEMASONRY OF ANTIQUITY. 3 1 

let us refer once more to that other line of religious 
history, the one passing through the idolatrous and 
polytheistic nations of antiquity, and trace from it the 
regular rise and progress of another division of the 
masonic institution, which, by way of distinction, has 
been called the Sfiurioits Freemasonry of Antiquity, 




IV. 



THE SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY OF ANTIQUITY. 

(Y^N the vast but barren desert of polytheism — dark 
£ftl and dreary as were its gloomy domains — there 
\f ) were still, however, to be found some few oases 
of truth. The philosophers and sages of antiquity 
had, in the course of their learned researches, aided by the 
light of nature, discovered something of those inestimable 
truths in relation to God and a future state which their 
patriarchal contemporaries had received as a revelation 
made to their common ancestry before the flood, and 
which had been retained and promulgated after that 
event by Noah. 

They were, with these dim but still purifying percep- 
tions, unwilling to degrade the majesty of the First Great 
Cause by sharing his attributes with a Zeus and a Hera 
in Greece, a Jupiter and a Juno in Rome, an Osiris and 
an Isis in Egypt ; and they did not believe that the think- 
ing, feeling, reasoning soul, the guest and companion of 
the body, would, at the hour of that body's dissolution, 
be consigned, with it, to total annihilation. 

Hence, in the earliest ages after the era of the disper- 
sion, there were some among the heathen who believed 



THE SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY OF ANTIQUITY. 7>3 

in the unity of God and the immortality of the soul. But 
these doctrines they durst not publicly teach. The minds 
of the people, grovelling in superstition, and devoted, as 
St. Paul testifies of the Athenians, to the worship of 
unknown gods, were not prepared for the philosophic 
teachings of a pure theology. It was, indeed, an axiom 
unhesitatingly enunciated and frequently repeated by their 
writers, that " there are many truths with which it is 
useless for the people to be made acquainted, and many 
fables which it is not expedient that they should know to 
be false." * Such is the language of Varro, as preserved 
by St. Augustine ; and Strabo, another of their writers, 
exclaims, u It is not possible for a philosopher to conduct 
a multitude of women and ignorant people by a method 
of reasoning, and thus to invite them to piety, holiness, 
and faith ; but the philosopher must also make use of 
superstition, and not omit the invention of fables and the 
performance of wonders." f 

While, therefore, in those early ages of the world, we 
find the masses grovelling in the intellectual debasement 
of a polytheistic and idolatrous religion, with no support 
for the present, no hope for the future, — living without 
the knowledge of a supreme and superintending Provi- 

* "Varro de religionibus loquens, evidenter dicit, multaesse vera, 
quae vulgo scire non sit utile; multaque, quce tametsi falsa sint, 
aliter existimare populum expediat." — St. Augustine, De Civit. 
Dei. — We must regret, with the learned Valloisin, that the sixteen 
books of Varro, on the religious antiquities of the ancients, have 
been lost; and the regret is enhanced by the reflection that they 
existed until the beginning of the fourteenth century, and disap- 
peared only when their preservation for less than two centuries 
more would, by the discovery of printing, have secured their 
perpetuity. 

t Strabo, Geog., lib. i. 

3 



34 THE SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY OF ANTIQUITY. 

dence, and dying without the expectation of a blissful 
immortality, — we shall at the same time rind ample testi- 
mony that these consoling doctrines were secretly believed 
by the philosophers and their disciples. . 

But though believed, they were not publicly taught. 
They were heresies which it would have been impolitic 
and dangerous to have broached to the public ear ; they 
were truths which might have led to a contempt of the 
established, system and to the overthrow of the popular 
superstition. Socrates, the Athenian sage, is an illus- 
trious instance of the punishment that was meted out to 
the bold innovator who attempted to insult the gods and 
to poison the minds of youth with the heresies of a philo- 
sophic religion. " They permitted, therefore," says a 
learned writer on this subject,* " the multitude to remain 
plunged as they were in the depth of a gross and compli- 
cated idolatry ; but for those philosophic few who could 
bear the light of truth without being confounded by the 
blaze, they removed the mysterious veil, and displayed to 
them the Deity in the radiant glory of his unity. From 
the vulgar eye, however, these doctrines were kept invio- 
lably sacred, and wrapped in the veil of impenetrable 
mystery." 

The consequence of all this was, that no one was 
permitted to be invested with the knowledge of these 
sublime truths, until by a course of severe and arduous 
trials, by a long and painful initiation, and by a formal 
series of gradual preparations, he had proved himself 
worthy and capable of receiving the full light of wisdom. 
For this purpose, therefore, those peculiar religious insti- 

* Maurice, Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 297. 



THE SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY OF ANTIQUITY. 35 

tutions were organized which the ancients designated as 
the Mysteries, and which, from the resemblance of their 
organization, their objects, and their doctrines, have by 
masonic writers been called the " Spurious Freemasonry 
of Antiquity." 

Warburton,* in giving a definition of what these Mys- 
teries were, says, " Each of the pagan gods had (besides 
the public and open) a secret worship paid unto him, to 
w T hich none were admitted but those who had been se- 
lected by preparatory ceremonies, called initiation. This 
secret worship was termed the Mysteries." I shall now 
endeavor briefly to trace the connection between these 
Mysteries and the institution of Freemasonry ; and to do 
so, it will be necessary to enter upon some details of the 
constitution of those mystic assemblies. 

Almost every country of the ancient world had its pe- 
culiar Mysteries, dedicated to the occult worship of some 
especial and favorite god, and to the inculcation of a 
secret doctrine, very different from that which was taught 
in the public ceremonial of devotion. Thus in Persia the 
Mysteries were dedicated to Mithras, or the Sun ; in 
Egypt, to Isis and Osiris ; in Greece, to Demeter ; in Samo- 
thracia, to the gods Cabiri, the Mighty Ones ; in Syria, 
to Dionysus ; while in the more northern nations of Eu- 
rope, such as Gaul and Britain, the initiations were dedi- 
cated to their peculiar deities, and were celebrated under 
the general name of the Druidical rites. But no matter 
where or how instituted, whether ostensibly in honor of 
the effeminate Adonis, the favorite of Venus, or of the 
implacable Odin, the Scandinavian god of war and car- 

* Div. Leg., vol. i. b. ii. § iv. p. 193, iotli Lond. edit. 



36 THE SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY OF ANTIQUITY. 

nage ; whether dedicated to Demeter, the type of the earth, 
or to Mithras, the symbol of all that fructifies that earth, 
— the great object and design of the secret instruction were 
identical in all places, and the Mysteries constituted a 
school of religion in which the errors and absurdities of 
polytheism were revealed to the initiated. The candidate 
was taught that the multitudinous deities of the popular 
theology were but hidden symbols of the various attri- 
butes of the supreme god, — a spirit invisible and indi- 
visible, — and that the soul, as an emanation from his 
essence, could " never see corruption," but must, after 
the death of the body, be raised to an eternal life. * 

That this was the doctrine and the object of the Mys- 
teries is evident from the concurrent testimony both of 
those ancient writers who flourished contemporaneously 
with the practice of them, and of those modern scholars 
who have devoted themselves to their investigation. 

Thus Isocrates, speaking of them in his Panegyric, 
says, " Those who have been initiated in the Mysteries 
of Ceres entertain better hopes both as to the end of life 
and the whole of futurity." f 

EpictetusJ declares that everything in these Mysteries 
was instituted by the ancients for the instruction and 
amendment of life. 

And Plato § says that the design of initiation was to 
restore the soul to that state of perfection from which it 
had originally fallen. 

* The hidden doctrines of the unity of the Deity and the im- 
mortality of the soul were taught originally in all the Mysteries, 
even those of Cupid and Bacchus. — Warburton, apud Spence's 
Anecdotes, p. 309. 

f Isoc. Paneg., p. 59. 

X Apud Arrian. Dissert., lib. iii. c. xxi. 

§ Phsedo. 



THE SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY OF ANTIQUITY. 37 

Thomas Taylor, the celebrated Platonist, who possessed 
an unusual acquaintance, with the character of these an- 
cient rites, asserts that they " obscurely intimated, by mys- 
tic and splendid visions, the felicity of the soul, both here 
and hereafter, when purified from the defilements of a 
material nature, and constantly elevated to the realities 
of intellectual vision." * 

Creuzer,f a distinguished German writer, who has ex- 
amined the subject of the ancient Mysteries with great 
judgment and elaboration, gives a theory on their nature 
and design which is well worth consideration. 

This theory is, that when there had been placed under 
the eyes of the initiated symbolical representations of the 
creation of the universe, and the origin of things, the mi- 
grations and purifications of the soul, the beginning and 
progress of civilization and agriculture, there was drawn 
from these symbols and these scenes in the Mysteries an 
instruction destined only for the more perfect, or the 
epopts, to whom were communicated the doctrines of the 
existence of a single and eternal God, and the destination 
of the universe and of man. 

Creuzer here, however, refers rather to the general 
object of the instructions, than to the character of the 
rites and ceremonies by which they were impressed upon 
the mind ; for in the M} T steries, as in Freemasonry, the 
Hierophant, whom w T e would now call the Master of the 
Lodge, often, as Lobeck observes, delivered a mystical 
lecture, or discourse, on some moral subject. 

Faber, who, notwithstanding the predominance in his 

* Dissert, on the Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, in the 
Pamphleteer, vol. viii. p. 53. 

t Symbol, und Mythol. der Alt. Volk. 



38 THE SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY OF ANTIQUITY. 

mind of a theory which referred every rite and symbol of 
the ancient world to the traditions of Noah, the ark, and 
the deluge, has given a generally correct view of the sys- 
tems of ancient religion, describes the initiation into the 
Mysteries as a scenic representation of the mythic descent 
into Hades, or the grave, and the return from thence to 
the light of day. 

In a few words, then, the object of instruction in all 
these Mysteries was the unity of God, and the intention 
of the ceremonies of initiation into them was, by a scenic 
representation of death, and subsequent restoration to 
life,* to impress the great truths of the resurrection of 
the dead and the immortality of the soul. 

I need scarcely here advert to the great similarity in 
design and conformation which existed between these 
ancient rites and the third or Master's degree of Masonry. 
Like it they were all funereal in their character : they 
began in sorrow and lamentation, they ended in joy ; 
there was an aphanism, or burial ; a pastos, or grave ; an 
euresis, or discovery of what had been lost ; and a legend, 
or. mythical relation, — all of which were entirely and 
profoundly symbolical in their character. 

And hence, looking to this strange identity of design 
and form, between the initiations of the ancients and 
those of the modern Masons, writers have been disposed 
to designate these mysteries as the Spurious Freema- 
sonry of Antiquity. 

* In these Mysteries, after the people had for a long time be- 
wailed the loss of a particular person, he was at last supposed to 
be restored to life. — Bryant, Anal, of Anc. Mythology^ vol. iii. 
p. 176. 




THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES. 




(\f NOW propose, for the purpose of illustrating 
these views, and of familiarizing the reader with 
the coincidences between Freemasonry and the 
ancient Mysteries, so that he may be better ena- 
bled to appreciate the mutual influences of each on the 
other as they are hereafter to be developed, to present a 
more detailed relation of one or more of these ancient sys- 
tems of initiation. 

As the first illustration, let us select the Mysteries of 
Osiris, as they were practised in Egypt, the birthplace 
of all that is wonderful in the arts or sciences, or mys- 
terious in the religion, of the ancient world. 

It was on the Lake of Sais that the solemn ceremonies 
of the Osirian initiation were performed. " On this lake," 
says Herodotus, " it is that the Egyptians represent by 
night his sufferings whose name I refrain from mention- 
ing ; and this representation they call their Mysteries." * 

Osiris, the husband of Isis, was an ancient king of the 
Egyptians. Having been slain by Typhon, his body was 



* Herod. Hist., lib. iii. c. clxxi. 



40 THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES. 

cut into pieces* by his murderer, and the mangled remains 
cast upon the waters of the Nile, to be dispersed to the 
four winds of heaven. His wife, Isis, mourning for the 
death and the mutilation of her husband, for many days 
searched diligently with her companions for the portions 
of the body, and having at length found them, united them 
together, and bestowed upon them decent interment, — 
while Osiris, thus restored, became the chief deity of his 
subjects, and his worship was united with that of Isis, as 
the fecundating and fertilizing powers of nature. The 
candidate in these initiations was made to pass through 
a mimic repetition of the conflict and destruction of 
Osiris, and his eventual recovery ; and the explanations 
made to him, after he had received the full share of light 
to which the painful and solemn ceremonies through 
which he had passed had entitled him, constituted the 
secret doctrine of which I have already spoken, as the 
object of all the Mysteries. Osiris, — a real and personal 
god to the people, — to be worshipped with fear and with 
trembling, and to be propitiated with sacrifices and burnt 
offerings, became to the initiate but a symbol of the 

" Great first cause, least understood," 

while his death, and the wailing of Isis, with the recovery 
of the body, his translation to the rank of a celestial being, 
and the consequent rejoicing of his spouse, were but a 

* The legend says it was cut into fourteen pieces. Compare 
this with the fourteen days of burial in the masonic legend of the 
third degree. Why the particular number in each? It has been 
thought by some, that in the latter legend there was a reference to 
the half of the moon's age, or its dark period, symbolic of the 
darkness of death, followed by the fourteen days of bright moon, 
or restoration to life. 



THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES. 41 

tropical mode of teaching that after death comes life 
eternal, and that though the body be ^destroyed, the soul 
shall still live. 

" Can we doubt," says the Baron Sainte Croix, " that 
such ceremonies as those practised in the Mysteries of 
Osiris had been originally instituted to impress more 
profoundly on the mind the dogma of future rewards and 
punishments?"* 

" The sufferings and death of Osiris," says Mr. Wilkin- 
son,! " were the great Mystery of the Egyptian religion ; 
and some traces of it are perceptible among other people 
of antiquity. His being the divine goodness and the 
abstract idea of ' good,' his manifestation upon earth (like 
an Indian god), his death and resurrection, and his office 
as judge of the dead in a future state, look like the early 
revelation of a future manifestation of the deity converted 
into a mythological fable." 

A similar legend and similar ceremonies, varied only 
as to time, and place, and unimportant details, were to 
be found in all the initiations of the ancient Mysteries. 
The dogma was the same, — future life, — and the method 
of inculcating it was the same. The coincidences be- 
tween the design of these rites and that of Freemasonry, 
which must already begin to appear, will enable us to 
give its full value to the expression of Hutchinson, when 
he says that " the Master Mason represents a man under 

* Mysteres du Paganisme, torn. i. p. 6. 

t Notes to Rawlinson's Herodotus, b. ii. ch. clxxi. Mr. Bryant 
expresses the same opinion : "The principal rites in Egypt were 
confessedly for a person lost and consigned for a time to darkness, 
who was at last found. This person I have mentioned to have 
been described under the character of Osiris." — Analysis of Ancient 
Mythology, vol. iii. p. 177. 



42 THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES. 

the Christian doctrine saved from the grave of iniquity 
and raised to the faith of salvation." * 

In Phoenicia similar Mysteries were celebrated in honor 
of Adonis, the favorite lover of Venus, who, having, while 
hunting, been slain by a wild boar on Mount Lebanon, 
was restored to life by Proserpine. The mythological 
story is familiar to every classical scholar. In the popu- 
lar theology, Adonis was the son of Cinyras, king of 
Cyrus, whose untimely death was wept by Venus and 
her attendant nymphs : in the physical theology of the 
philosophers,! he was a symbol of the sun, alternately 
present to and absent from the earth ; but in the initiation 
into the Mysteries of his worship, his resurrection and 
return from Hades were adopted as a type of the im- 
mortality of the soul. The ceremonies of initiation in the 
Adonia began wfth lamentation for his loss, — or, as the 
prophet Ezekiel expresses it, " Behold, there sat women 
weeping for Thammuz," — for such was the name under 
which his worship was introduced among the Jews ; and 
they ended with the most extravagant demonstrations of 
joy at the representation of his return to life,j while the 
hierophant exclaimed, in a congratulatory strain, — 

" Trust, ye initiates; the god is safe, 
And from our grief salvation shall arise." 

* Spirit of Masonry, p. 100. 

t Varro, according to St. Augustine (De Civ. Dei, vi. 5), says 
that among the ancients there were three kinds of theology — a 
mythical, which was used by the poets; a. physical, by the philoso- 
phers, and a civil, by the people. 

X " Tous les ans," says Sainte Croix, " pendant les jours con- 
sacres au souvenir de sa mort, tout etoit plonge dans la tristesse : 
on ne cessoit de pousser des gemissemens; on alloit meme jusqu'a 
se flageller et se donner des coups. Le dernier jour de ce deuil, 



THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES. 43 

Before proceeding to an examination of those Mysteries 
which are the most closely connected with the masonic 
institution, it will be as well to take a brief view of their 
general organization. 

The secret worship, or Mysteries, of the ancients were 
always divided into the lesser and the greater ; the former 
being intended only to awaken curiosity, to test the 
capacity and disposition of the candidate, and by sym- 
bolical purifications to prepare him for his introduction 
into the greater Mysteries. 

The candidate was at first called an aspirant, or seeker 
of the truth, and the initial ceremony which he under- 
went was a lustration or purification by water. In this 
condition he may be compared to the Entered Apprentice 
of the masonic rites, and it is here worth adverting to the 
fact (which will be hereafter more fully developed) that 
all the ceremonies in the first degree of masonry are 
symbolic of an internal purification. 

In the lesser Mysteries* the candidate took an oath 
of secrecy, which was administered to him by the mys- 
tagogue, and then received a preparatory instruction,f 

on faisoit des sacrifices funebres en l'honneur de ce dieu. Le jour 
suivant, on recevoit la nbuvelle qu'Adonis venoit d'etre rappele a 
la vie, qui mettoit fin a leur deuil." — Recherches sur les Myst. 
du Paganisme, torn. ii. p. 105. 

* Clement of Alexandria calls them fivairjoca xa ttqo /uvarrjolajp, 
" the mysteries before the mysteries." 

t Les petits mysteres ne consistoient qu'en ceremonies pre- 
paratoires. — Sainte Croix, i. 297. — As to the oath of secrecy, 
Bryant says, " The first thing at these awful meetings was to offer 
an oath of secrecy to all who were to be initiated, after which they 
proceeded to the ceremonies." — Anal, of Anc. Myth., vol. iii. p. 
174- —The Orphic Argonautics allude to the oath : fisidc 6' ooxia 
MvOTctic, x. t. 1., " after the oath was administered to the mystes," 
&c. — Orp/i. Argon., v. 11. 



44 THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES. 

which enabled him afterwards to understand the develop- 
ments of the higher and subsequent division. He was 
now called a Mystes, or initiate, and may be compared 
to the Fellow Craft of Freemasonry. 

In the greater Mysteries the whole knowledge of the 
divine truths, which was the object of initiation, was 
communicated. Here we find, among the various cere- 
monies which assimilated these rites to Freemasonry, 
the aphanism, which was the disappearance or death ; 
the pastos, the couch, coffin, or grave; the eures/s, or 
the discovery of the body ; and the autopsy, or full sight 
of everything, that is, the complete communication of the 
secrets. The candidate was here called an epopt, or eye- 
witness, because nothing was now hidden from him ; and 
hence he may be compared to the Master Mason, of 
whom Hutchinson says that " he has discovered the 
knowledge of God and his salvation, and been redeemed 
from the death of sin and the sepulchre of pollution and 
unrighteousness." 




VI. 



THE DIONYSIAC ARTIFICERS. 




FTER this general view of the religious Myste- 
ries of the ancient world, let us now proceed to 
a closer examination of those which are more 
intimately connected with the history of Free- 
masonry, and whose influence is, to this day, most evi- 
dently felt in its organization. 

Of all the pagan Mysteries instituted by the ancients 
none were more extensively diffused than those of the 
Grecian god Dionysus. They were established in Greece, 
Rome, Syria, and all Asia Minor. Among the Greeks, 
and still more among the Romans, the rites celebrated on 
the Dionysiac festival were, it must be confessed, of a 
dissolute and licentious character.* But in Asia they 



* The satirical pen of Aristophanes has not spared the Dio- 
nysiac festivals. But the raillery and sarcasm of a comic writer 
must always be received with many grains of allowance. He 
has, at least, been candid enough to confess that no one could be 
initiated who had been guilty of any crime against his country or 
the public security. — Ranee, v. 360-365. — Euripides makes the 
chorus in his Bacchse proclaim that the Mysteries were practised 
only for virtuous purposes. In Rome, however, there can be little 

45 



46 THE DIONYSIAC ARTIFICERS. 

assumed a different form. There, as elsewhere, the 
legend (for it has already been said that each Mystery 
had its legend) recounted, and the ceremonies represent- 
ed, the murder of Dionysus by the Titans. The secret 
doctrine, too, among the Asiatics, was not different from 
that among the western nations, but there was something 
peculiar in the organization of the system. The Myste- 
ries of Dionysus in Syria, more especially, were not 
simply of a theological character. There the disciples 
joined to the indulgence in their speculative and secret 
opinions as to the unity of God and the immortajity of 
the soul, which were common to all the Mysteries, the 
practice of an operative and architectural art, and occu- 
pied themselves as well in the construction of temples 
and public buildings as in the pursuit of divine truth. 

I can account for the greater purity of these Syrian 
rites only by adopting the ingenious theory of Thirwall,* 
that all the Mysteries " were the remains of a worship 
which preceded the rise of the Hellenic mythology, and 
its attendant rites, grounded on a view of nature less 
fanciful, more earnest, and better fitted to awaken both 
philosophical thought and religious feeling," and by sup- 
posing that the Asiatics, not being, from their geographi- 

doubt that the initiations partook at length of a licentious char- 
acter. " On ne peut douter," says Ste. Croix, " que l'introduction 
des fetes de Bacchus en Italie n'ait accelere les progres du liberti- 
nage et de la debauche dans cette contree." — Myst. du Pog. y 
torn. ii. p. 91. — St. Augustine (De Civ. Dei, lib. vii. c. xxi.) in- 
veighs against the impurity of the ceremonies in Italy of the 
sacred rites of Bacchus. But even he does not deny that the 
motive with which they were performed was of a religious, or at 
least superstitious nature — "Sic videlicet Liber deus placandus 
fuerat." The propitiation of a deity was certainly a religious act. 
* Hist. Greece, vol. ii. p. 140. 



THE DIONYSIAC ARTIFICERS. 47 

cal position, so early imbued with the errors of Hellen- 
ism, had been better able to preserve the purity and 
philosophy of the old Pelasgic faith, which, itself, was 
undoubtedly a direct emanation from the patriarchal 
religion, or, as it has been called, the Pure Freemasonry 
of the antediluvian world. 

Be this, however, as it may, we know that " the Dio- 
nysiacs of Asia Minor were undoubtedly an association 
of architects and engineers, who had the exclusive privi- 
lege of building temples, stadia, and theatres, under the 
mysterious tutelage of Bacchus, and were distinguished 
from the uninitiated or profane inhabitants by the science 
which they possessed, and by many private signs and 
tokens by which they recognized each other." * 

This speculative and operative society f — speculative 
in the esoteric, theologic lessons which were taught in its 
initiations, and operative in the labors of its members as 
architects — was distinguished by many peculiarities that 
closely assimilate it to the institution of Freemasonry. In 
the practice of charity, the more opulent were bound to 
relieve the wants and contribute to the support of the 
poorer brethren. They were divided, for the conveniences 
of labor and the advantages of government, into smaller 
bodies, which, like our lodges, were directed by super- 
intending officers. They employed, in their ceremonial 

* This language is quoted from Robison {Proof s of a Conspiracy, 
p. 20, Lond. edit. 1797), whom none will suspect or accuse of an 
und"ue veneration for the antiquity or the morality of the masonic 
order. 

t We must not confound these Asiatic builders with the play- 
actors, who were subsequently called by the Greeks, as we learn 
from Aulus Gellius (lib. xx. cap. 4), "artificers of Dionysus " — 
4iovvaiaitoi re/vnaU 



48 THE DIONYSIAC ARTIFICERS. 

observances, many of the implements of operative Ma- 
sonry, and used, like the Masons, a universal language, 
and conventional modes of recognition, by which o?ie 
brother might know another in the dark as well as the 
light, and which served to unite the whole body, where- 
soever they might be dispersed, in one common brother- 
hood.* 

I have said that in the mysteries of Dionysus the le- 
gend recounted the death of that hero-god, and the subse- 
quent discovery of his body. Some further details of the 
nature of the Dionysiac ritual are, therefore, necessary 
for a thorough appreciation of the points to which I pro- 
pose directly to invite attention. 

In these mystic rites, the aspirant was made to repre- 
sent, symbolically and in a dramatic form, the events 
connected with the slaying of the god from whom the 
Mysteries derived their name. After a variety of prepar- 
atory ceremonies, intended to call forth all his courage 
and fortitude, the aphanism or mystical death of Dionysus 

* There is abundant evidence, among ancient authors, of the 
existence of signs and passwords in the Mysteries. Thus Apuleius, 
in his Apology, says, " Si qui forte adest eorundem Solemnium 
mihi particeps, signum dato," etc. ; that is, " If any one happens 
to be present who lias been initiated into the same rites as myself, 
if he will give me the sign, he shall then be at liberty to hear what 
it is that I keep with so much care." Plautus also alludes to 
this usage, when, in his " Miles Gloriosus," act iv. sc. 2, he makes 
Milphidippa say to Pyrgopolonices, " Cedo signum, si harunc 
Baccharum es ; " i. e., "Give the sign if you are one of these 
Bacchae," or initiates into the Mysteries of Bacchus. Clemens 
Alexandrinus calls these modes of recognition Guidijjuura, as if 
means of safety. Apuleius elsewhere uses memoracula, I think 
to denote passwords, when he says, " sanctissime sacrorum signa 
et memoracula custodire," which I am inclined to translate, " most 
scrupulously to preserve the signs and passwords" of the sacred 
rites." 



THE DIONYSIAC ARTIFICERS. 49 

was figured out in the ceremonies, and the shrieks and 
lamentations of the initiates, with the confinement or 
burial of the candidate on the pastos, couch, or coffin, 
constituted the first part of the ceremony of initiation. 
Then began the search of Rhea for the remains of Dio- 
nysus, which was continued amid scenes of the greatest 
confusion and tumult, until, at last, the search having 
been successful, the mourning was turned into joy, light 
succeeded to darkness, and the candidate was invested 
with the knowledge of the secret doctrine of the Myste- 
ries — the belief in the existence of one God, and a future 
state of rewards and punishments.* 

Such were the mysteries that were practised by the. 
architects — the Freemasons, so to speak — of Asia Mi- 
nor. At Tyre, the richest and most important city of 
that region, a city memorable for the splendor and mag- 
nificence of the buildings with which it was decorated, 
there were colonies or lodges of these mystic architects ; 
and this fact I request that you will bear in mind, as it 
forms an important link in the chain that connects the 
Dionysiacs with the Freemasons. 

But to make every link in this chain of connection 
complete, it is necessary that the mystic artists of Tyre 
should be proved to be at least contemporaneous with the 

* The Baron de Sainte Croix gives this brief view of the cere- 
monies : "Dans ces mysteres on employoit, pour remplir l'ame 
des assistans d'une sainte horreur, les m£mes moyensqu'a Eleusis. 
L'apparition de fantomes et de divers objets propres a effrayer, 
sembloit disposer les esprits a la credulite. lis en avoient sans 
doute besoin, pour ajouter foi a toutes les explications des mys- 
tagogues : elles rouloient sur le massacre de Bacchus par les 
Titans," &c. — Reckerches sur les Mysteres du Paganisme, torn. ii. 
sect. vii. art. iii. p. 89. 

4 



$0 THE DIONYSIAC ARTIFICERS. 

building of King Solomon's temple ; and the evidence of 
that fact I shall now attempt to produce. 

Lawrie, whose elaborate researches into this subject 
leave us nothing further to discover, places the arrival of 
the Dionysiacs in Asia Minor at the time of the Ionic 
migration, when " the inhabitants of Attica, complaining 
of the narrowness of their territory and the unfruitfulness 
of its soil, went in quest of more extensive and fertile 
settlements. Being joined by a number of the inhabit- 
ants of surrounding provinces, they sailed to Asia Minor, 
drove out the original inhabitants, and seized upon the 
most eligible situations, and united them under the name 
of Ionia, because the greatest number of the refugees 
were natives of that Grecian province." * With their 
knowledge of the arts of sculpture and architecture, in 
which the Greeks had already made some progress, the 
emigrants brought over to their new settlements their 
religious customs also, and introduced into Asia the 
mysteries of Athene and Dionysus long before they 
had been corrupted by the licentiousness of the mother 
country. 

Now, Playfair places the Ionic migration in the year 
1044 B. C, Gillies in 1055, and the Abbe Barthelemy in 
1076. But the latest of these periods will extend as far 
back as forty-four years before the commencement of the 
temple of Solomon at Jerusalem, and will give ample time 
for the establishment of the Dionysiac fraternity at the 
city of Tyre, and the initiation of " Hiram the Builder " 
into its mysteries. 

Let us now pursue the chain of historical events 

* Lawrie, Hist, of Freemasonry, p. 27. 



THE DIONYSIAC ARTIFICERS. 5 1 

which finally united this purest branch of the Spurious 
Freemasonry of the pagan nations with the Primitive 
Freemasonry of the Jews at Jerusalem. 

When Solomon, king of Israel, was about to build, in 
accordance with the purposes of his father, David, " a house 
unto the name of Jehovah, his God," he made his inten- 
tion known to Hiram, king of Tyre, his friend and ally ; 
and because he was well aware of the architectural skill 
of the Tyrian Dionysiacs, he besought that monarch's 
assistance to enable him to carry his pious design into 
execution. Scripture informs us that Hiram complied 
with the request of Solomon, and sent him the necessary 
workmen to assist him in the glorious undertaking.. 
Among others, he sent an architect, who is briefly de- 
scribed, in the First Book of Kings, as " a widow's son, 
of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father a man of Tyre, 
a worker in brass, a man filled with wisdom and under- 
standing and cunning to work all works in brass ; " and 
more fully, in the Second Book of Chronicles, as " a cun- 
ning man, endued with understanding of Hiram my 
father's, the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, 
and his father, a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, 
and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in 
purple, in blue, and in fine linen and in crimson, also to 
grave any manner of graving, and to find out any device 
which shall be put to him." 

To this man — this widow's son (as Scripture history, 
as well as masonic tradition informs us) — -was intrusted 
by King Solomon an important position among the work- 
men at the sacred edifice, which was constructed on 
Mount Moriah. His knowledge and experience as an 
artificer, and his eminent skill in every kind of " curious 



52 THE DIONYSIAC ARTIFICERS. 

and cunning workmanship," readily placed him at the 
head of both the Jewish and Tyrian craftsmen, as the 
chief builder and principal conductor of the works ; and 
it is to him, by means of the large authority which this 
position gave him, that we attribute the union of two 
people, so antagonistical in race, so dissimilar in manners, 
and so opposed in religion, as the Jews and Tyrians, in 
one common brotherhood, which resulted in the organi- 
zation of the institution of Freemasonry. This Hiram, 
as a Tyrian and an artificer, must have been connected 
with the Dionysiac fraternity ; nor could he have been a 
very humble or inconspicuous member, if we may judge 
of his rank in the society, from the amount of talent 
which he is said to have possessed, and from the elevated 
position that he held in the affections, and at the court, 
of the king of Tyre. He must, therefore, have been 
well acquainted with all the ceremonial usages of the 
Dionysiac artificers, and must have enjoyed a long expe- 
rience of the advantages of the government and discipline 
which they practised in the erection of the many sacred 
edifices in which they were engaged. A portion of these 
ceremonial usages and of this discipline he would natu- 
rally be inclined to introduce among the workmen at 
Jerusalem. He therefore united them in a society, sim- 
ilar in many respects to that of the Dionysiac artificers. 
He inculcated lessons of charity and brotherly love ; he 
established a ceremony of initiation, to test experimentally 
the fortitude and worth of the candidate ; adopted modes 
of recognition ; and impressed the obligations of duty 
and principles of morality by means of symbols and 
allegories. 

To the laborers and men of burden, the Ish Sabal, 



THE DIONYSIAC ARTIFICERS. 53 

and to the craftsmen, corresponding with the first and 
second degrees of more modern Masonry, but little secret 
knowledge was confided. Like the aspirants in the lesser 
Mysteries of paganism, their instructions were simply to 
purify and prepare them for a more solemn ordeal, and 
for the knowledge of the sublimest truths. These were 
to be found only in the Master's degree, which it was 
intended should be in imitation of the greater Mysteries ; 
and in it were to be unfolded, explained, and enforced the 
great doctrines of the unity of God and the immortality 
of the soul. But here there must have at once arisen an 
apparently insurmountable obstacle to the further contin- 
uation of the resemblance of Masonry to the Mysteries 
of Dionysus. In the pagan Mysteries, I have already 
said that these lessons were allegorically taught by means 
of a legend. Now, in the Mysteries of Dionysus, the 
legend was that of the death and subsequent resuscitation 
of the god Dionysus. But it would have been utter- 
ly impossible to introduce such a legend as the basis of 
any instructions to be communicated to Jewish candi- 
dates. Any allusion to the mythological fables of their 
Gentile neighbors, any celebration of the myths of pagan 
theology, would have been equally offensive to the taste 
and repugnant to the religious prejudices of a nation 
educated, from generation to generation, in the worship 
of a divine being jealous of his prerogatives, and who 
had made himself known to his people as the Jehovah, 
the God of time present, past, and future. How this 
obstacle would have been surmounted by the Israelitish 
founder of the order I am unable to say: a substitute 
would, no doubt, have been invented, which would have 
met all the symbolic requirements of the legend of the 



54 THE DIONYSIAC ARTIFICERS. 

Mysteries, or Spurious Freemasonry, without violating the 
religious principles of the Primitive Freemasoury of the 
Jews ; but the necessity for such invention never existed, 
and before the completion of the temple a melancholy 
event is said to have occurred, which served to cut the 
Gordian knot, and the death of its chief architect has 
supplied Freemasonry with its appropriate legend — a 
legend which, like the legends of all the Mysteries, is used 
to testify our faith in the resurrection of the body and 
the immortality of the soul. 

Before concluding this part of the subject, it is proper 
that something should be said of the authenticity of the 
legend of the third degree. Some distinguished Masons 
are disposed to give it full credence as an historical fact, 
while others look upon it only as a beautiful allegory. 
So far as the question has any bearing upon the symbol- 
ism of Freemasonry it is not of importance ; but those 
who contend for its historical character assert that they 
do so on the following grounds : — 

First. Because the character of the legend is such as 
to meet all the requirements of the well-known axiom of 
Vincentius Lirinensis, as to what we are to believe in 
traditionary matters.* 

" £hiod semper, quod ubique, quod ah omnibus tra- 
ditum est" 

* Vincentius Lirinensis or Vincent of Lirens, who lived in the 
fifth century of the Christian era, wrote a controversial treatise 
entitled " Commonitorium," remarkable for the blind veneration 
which it pays to the voice of tradition. The rule which he there 
lays down, and which is cited in the text, may be considered, in a 
modified application, as an axiom by which we may test the prob- 
ability, at least, of all sorts of traditions. None out of the pale of 
Vincent's church will go so far as he did in making it the criterion 
of positive truth. 



THE DIONYSIAC ARTIFICERS. $$ 

That is, we are to believe whatever tradition has been 
at all times, in all places, and by all persons handed down. 

With .this rule the legend of Hiram Abif, they say, 
agrees in every respect. It has been universally received, 
and almost universally credited, among Freemasons from 
the earliest times. We have no record of any Masonry 
having ever existed since the time of the temple without 
it ; and, indeed, it is so closely interwoven into the whole 
system, forming the most essential part of it, and giving 
it its most determinative character, that it is evident that 
the institution could no more exist without the legend, 
than the legend could have been retained without the 
institution. This, therefore, the advocates of the histor- 
ical character of the legend think, gives probability at 
least to its truth. 

Secondly. It is not contradicted by the scriptural his- 
tory of the transactions at the temple, and therefore, in 
the absence of the only existing written authority on the 
subject, we are at liberty to depend on traditional informa- 
tion, provided the tradition be, as it is contended that in 
this instance it is, reasonable, probable, and supported by 
uninterrupted succession. 

Thirdly. It is contended that the very silence of Scrip- 
ture in relation to the death of Hiram, the Builder, is an 
argument in favor of the mysterious nature of that death. 
A man so important in his position as to have been called 
the favorite of two kings, — sent by one and received by 
the other as a gift of surpassing value, and the donation 
thought worthy of a special record, would hardly have 
passed into oblivion, when his labor was finished, with- 
out the memento of a single line, unless his death had 
taken place in such a way as to render a public account 



56 THE DIONYSIAC ARTIFICERS. 

of it improper. And this is supposed to have been the 
fact. It had become the legend of the new Mysteries, and, 
like those of the old ones, was only to be divulged when 
accompanied with the symbolic instructions which it was 
intended to impress upon the minds of the aspirants. 

But if, on the other hand, it be admitted that the legend 
of the third degree is a fiction, — that the whole masonic 
and extra-scriptural account of Hiram Abif is simply a 
myth, — it could not, in the slightest degree, affect the 
theory which it is my object to establish. For since, in a 
mythic relation, as the learned Miiller* has observed, fact 
and imagination, the real and the ideal, are very closely 
united, and since the myth itself always arises, according 
to the same author, out of a necessity and unconscious- 
ness on the part of its framers, and by impulses which act 
alike on all, we must go back to the Spurious Freema- 
sonry of the Dionysiacs for the principle which led to the 
involuntary formation of this Hiramic myth ; and then we 
arrive at the same result, which has been already indi- 
cated, namely, that the necessity of the religious sentiment 
in the Jewish mind, to which the introduction of the 
legend of Dionysus would have been abhorrent, led to the 
substitution for it of that of Hiram, in which the ideal 
parts of the narrative have been intimately blended with 
real transactions. Thus, that there was such a man as 
Hiram Abif; that he was the chief builder at the temple 
of Jerusalem; that he was the confidential friend of the 
kings of Israel and Tyre, which is indicated by his title 
of Ad, or father ; and that he is not heard of after the 
completion of the temple, — are all historical facts. That 

* Proleg. zu einer wissenshaftlich. Mythologie. 



THE DIONYSIAC ARTIFICERS. 57 

he died by violence, and in the way described in the ma- 
sonic legend, may be also true, or may be merely mythical 
elements incorporated into the historical narrative. 

But whether this be so or not, — whether the legend be 
a fact or a fiction, a history or a myth, — this, at least, is 
certain : that it was adopted by the Solomonic Masons of 
the temple as a substitute for the idolatrous legend of the 
death of Dionysus which belonged to the Dionysiac Mys- 
teries of the Tyrian workmen. 




VII. 

THE UNION OF SPECULATIVE AND OPERATIVE MA- 
SONRY AT THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON. 



^P^HUS, then, we arrive at another important epoch 
/| in the history of the origin of Freemasonry. 
^^Jy I have shown how the Primitive Freemasonry, 
originating in this new world, with Noah, was handed 
down to his descendants as a purely speculative institu- 
tion, embracing certain traditions of the nature of God 
and of the soul. 

I have shown how, soon after the deluge, the descend- 
ants of Noah separated, one portion, losing their tradi- 
tions, and substituting in their place idolatrous and poly- 
theistic religions, while the other and smaller portion 
retained and communicated those original traditions un- 
der the name of the Primitive Freemasonry of antiquity. 

I have shown how, among the polytheistic nations, 
there were a few persons who still had a dim and cloud- 
ed understanding of these traditions, and that they taught 
them in certain secret institutions, known as the " Myste- 
ries," thus establishing another branch of the speculative 
science which is known under the name of the Spurious 
Freemasonry of antiquity. 



UNION OF SPECULATIVE AND OPERATIVE MASONRY. 59 

Again, I have shown how one sect or division of these 
Spurious Freemasons existed at Tyre about the time of 
the building of King Solomon's temple, and added to 
their speculative science, which was much purer than 
that of their contemporary Gentile mystics, the practice 
of the arts of architecture and sculpture, under the name 
of the Dionysiac Fraternity of Artificers. 

And, lastly, I have shown how, at the building of the 
Solomonic temple, on the invitation of the king of Israel, 
a large body of these architects repaired from Tyre to 
Jerusalem, organized a new institution, or, rather, a modi- 
fication of the two old ones, the Primitive Freemasons 
among the Israelites yielding something, and the Spu- 
rious Freemasons among the Tyrians yielding more ; 
the former purifying the speculative science, and the latter 
introducing the operative art, together with the mystical 
ceremonies with which they accompanied its administra- 
tion. 

It is at this epoch, then, that I place the first union of 
speculative and operative Masonry, — a union which con- 
tinued uninterruptedly to exist until a comparatively recent 
period, to which I shall have occasion hereafter briefly to 
advert. 

The other branches of the Spurious Freemasonry were 
not, however, altogether and at once abolished by this 
union, but continued also to exist and teach their half- 
truthful dogmas, for ages after, with interrupted success 
and diminished influence, until, in the fifth century of the 
Christian era, the whole of them were proscribed by the 
Emperor Theodosius. From time to time, however, 
other partial unions took place, as in the instance of 



6o UNION OF SPECULATIVE AND OPERATIVE MASONRY. 

Pythagoras, who, originally a member of the school of 
Spurious Freemasonry, was, during his visit to Babylon, 
about four hundred and fifty years after the union at the 
temple of Jerusalem, initiated by the captive Israelites 
into the rites of Temple Masonry, whence the instructions 
of that sage approximate much more nearly to the prin- 
ciples of Freemasonry, both in spirit and in letter, than 
those of any other of the philosophers of antiquity ; for 
which reason he is familiarly called, in the modern ma- 
sonic lectures, " an ancient friend and brother," and an 
important symbol of the order, the forty-seventh problem 
of Euclid, has been consecrated to his memory. 

I do not now propose to enter upon so extensive a task 
as to trace the history of the institution from the comple- 
tion of the first temple to its destruction by Nebuchad- 
nezzar ; through the seventy-two years of Babylonish 
captivity to the rebuilding of the second temple by 
Zerubbabel ; thence to the devastation of Jerusalem by 
Titus, when it was first introduced into Europe ; through 
all its struggles in the middle ages, sometimes protected 
and sometimes persecuted by the church, sometimes for- 
bidden by the law and oftener encouraged by the monarch ; 
until, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, it assumed 
its present organization. The details would require more 
time for their recapitulation than the limits of the present 
work will permit. 

But my object is not so much to give a connected his- 
tory of the progress of Freemasonry as to present a rational 
view of its origin and an examination of those important 
modifications which, from time to time, were impressed 
upon it by external influences, so as to enable us the more 



UNION OF SPECULATIVE AND OPERATIVE MASONRY. 6 1 

readily to appreciate the true character and design of its 
symbolism. 

Two salient points, at least, in its subsequent history, 
especially invite attention, because they have an important 
bearing on its organization, as a combined speculative 
and operative institution. 




VIIL 



THE TRAVELLING FREEMASONS OF THE MIDDLE 
AGES. 



^^^fc^HE first of these points to which I refer is the 
fn establishment of a body of architects, widely dis- 
\Jf ^ seminated throughout Europe during the middle 
ages under the avowed name of Travelling Free?nasons. 
This association of workmen, said to have been the 
descendants of the Temple Masons, may be traced by 
the massive monuments of their skill at as early a period 
as the ninth or tenth century ; although, according to the 
authority of Mr. Hope, who has written elaborately on 
the subject, some historians have found the evidence of 
their existence in the seventh century, and have traced a 
peculiar masonic language in the reigns of Charlemagne 
of France and Alfred of England. 

It is to these men, to their preeminent skill in archi- 
tecture, and to their well-organized system as a class of 
workmen, that the world is indebted for those mag- 
nificent edifices which sprang up in such undeviating 
principles of architectural form during the middle ages. 

" Wherever they came," says Mr. Hope, " in the suite 



TRAVELLING FREEMASONS OF MIDDLE AGES. 63 

of missionaries, or were called by the natives, or arrived 
of their own accord, to seek employment, they appeared 
headed by a chief surveyor, who governed the whole 
troop, and named one man out of every ten, under the 
name of warden, to overlook the nine others, set them- 
selves to building temporary huts * for their habitation 
around the spot where the work was to be carried on, 
regularly organized their different departments, fell to 
work, sent for fresh supplies of their brethren as the 
object demanded, and, when all was finished, again 
raised their encampment, and went elsewhere to under- 
take other jobs."j 

This society continued to preserve the commingled 
features of operative and speculative masonry, as they 
had been practised at the temple of Solomon. Admis- 
sion to the community was not restricted to professional 
artisans, but men of eminence, and particularly ecclesias- 
tics, were numbered among its members. " These latter," 
says Mr. Hope, " were especially anxious, themselves, to 
direct the improvement and erection of their churches 
and monasteries, and to manage the expenses of their 
buildings, and became members of an establishment 
which had so high and sacred a destination, was so entire- 
ly exempt from all local, civil jurisdiction, acknowledged 
the pope alone as its direct chief, and only worked 
under his immediate authority ; and thence we read of so 
many ecclesiastics of the highest rank — abbots, prelates, 
bishops — conferring additional weight and respectability 
on the order of Freemasonry by becoming its members 

* In German kutten, in English lodges^ whence the masonic 
term. 

t Historical Essay on Architecture, ch. xxi. 



64 TRAVELLING FREEMASONS OF MIDDLE AGES. 

— themselves giving the designs and superintending the 
construction of their churches, and employing the manual 
labor of their own monks in the edification of them." 

Thus in England, in the tenth century, the Masons are 
said to have received the special protection of King 
Athelstan ; in the eleventh century, Edward the Confes- 
sor declared himself their patron ; and in the twelfth, 
Henry I. gave them his protection. 

Into Scotland the Freemasons penetrated as early as 
the beginning of the twelfth century, and erected the 
Abbey of Kilwinning, which afterwards became the 
cradle of Scottish Masonry under the government of 
King Robert Bruce. 

Of the magnificent edifices which they erected, and of 
their exalted condition under both ecclesiastical and lay 
patronage in other countries, it is not necessary to give a 
minute detail. It is sufficient to say that in every part of 
Europe evidences are to be found of the existence of 
Freemasonry, practised by an organized body of work- 
men, and with whom men of learning were united ; or, in 
other words, of a combined operative and speculative 
institution. 

What the nature of this speculative science continued 
to be, we may learn from that very curious, if authentic, 
document, dated at Cologne, in the year 1535, and hence 
designated as the " Charter of Cologne." In that instru- 
ment, which purports to have been issued by the heads of 
the order in nineteen different and important cities of Eu- 
rope, and is addressed to their brethren as a defence 
against the calumnies of their enemies, it is announced that 
the order took its origin at a time " when a few adepts, 
distinguished by their life, their moral doctrine, and their 



TRAVELLING FREEMASONS OF MIDDLE AGES. 6$ 

sacred interpretation of the arcanic truths, withdrew 
themselves from the multitude in order more effectually 
to preserve uncontaminated the moral precepts of that 
religion which is implanted in the mind of man." 

We thus, then, have before us an aspect of Free- 
masonry as it existed in the middle ages, when it presents 
itself to our view as both operative and speculative in its 
character. The operative element that had been infused 
into it by the Dionysiac artificers of Tyre, at the building 
of the Solomonic temple, was not yet dissevered from 
the pure speculative element which had prevailed in it 
anterior to that period. 
5 




IX. 



DISSEVERANCE OF THE OPERATIVE ELEMENT. 



/^fc^HE next point to which our attention is to be 
m\ directed is when, a few centuries later, the 
^^ly operative character of the institution began to 
be less prominent, and the speculative to assume a pre- 
eminence which eventually ended in the total separation 
of the two. 

At what precise period the speculative began to pre- 
dominate over the operative element of the society, it 
is impossible to say. The change was undoubtedly 
gradual, and is to be attributed, in all probability, to 
the increased number of literary and scientific men who 
were admitted into the ranks of the fraternity. 

The Charter of Cologne, to which I have just alluded, 
speaks of " learned and enlightened men " as constituting 
the society long before the date of that document, which 
was 1535 ; but the authenticity of this work has, it must 
be confessed, been impugned, and I will not, therefore, 
press the argument on its doubtful authority. But the 
diary of that celebrated antiquary, Elias Ashmole, which 
is admitted to be authentic, describes his admission in the 
year 1646 into the order, when there is no doubt that the 



DISSEVERANCE OF THE OPERATIVE ELEMENT. 67 

operative character was fast giving way to the speculative. 
Preston tells us that about thirty years before, when the 
Earl of Pembroke assumed the Grand Mastership of Eng- 
land, " many eminent, wealthy, and learned men were 
admitted." 

In the year 1663 an assembly of the Freemasons of 
England was held at London, and the Earl of St. Albans 
was elected Grand Master. At this assembly certain 
regulations were adopted, in which the qualifications 
prescribed for candidates clearly allude to the speculative 
character of the institution. 

And, finally, at the commencement of the eighteenth 
century, and during the reign of Queen Anne, who died, 
it will be remembered, in i7 r 4' a proposition was agreed 
to by the society " that the privileges of Masonry should 
no longer be restricted to operative masons, but extend 
to men of various professions, provided that they were 
regularly approved and initiated into the order." 

Accordingly the records of the society show that from 
the year 1 71 7, at least, the era commonly, but improperly, 
distinguished as the restoration of Masonry, the operative 
element of the institution has been completely discarded, 
except so far as its influence is exhibited in the choice 
and arrangement of symbols, and the typical use of its 
technical language. 

The history of the origin of the order is here con- 
cluded ; and in briefly recapitulating, I may say that in 
its first inception, from the time of Noah to the building 
of the temple of Solomon, it was entirely speculative in 
its character ; that at the construction of that edifice, an 
operative element was infused into it by the Tyrian 



68 DISSEVERANCE OF THE OPERATIVE ELEMENT. 

builders ; that it continued to retain this compound 
operative and speculative organization until about the 
middle of the seventeenth century, when the latter ele- 
ment began to predominate ; and finally, that at the 
commencement of the eighteenth century, the operative 
element wholly disappeared, and the society has ever 
since presented itself in the character of a simply specu- 
lative association. 

The history that I have thus briefly sketched, will elicit 
from every reflecting mind at least two deductions of some 
importance to the intelligent Mason. 

In the first place, we may observe, that ascending, as 
the institution does, away up the stream of time, almost 
to the very fountains of history, for its source, it comes 
down to us, at this day, with so venerable an appearance 
of antiquity, that for that cause and on that claim alone 
it demands the respect of the world. It is no recent 
invention of human genius, whose vitality has yet to be 
tested by the wear and tear of time and opposition, and 
no sudden growth of short-lived enthusiasm, whose exist- 
ence may be as ephemeral as its birth was recent. One 
of the oldest of these modern institutions, the Carbo- 
narism of Italy, boasts an age that scarcely amounts to 
the half of a century, and has not been able to extend its 
progress beyond the countries of Southern Europe, im- 
mediately adjacent to the place of its birth ; while it and 
every other society of our own times that have sought to 
simulate the outward appearance of Freemasonry, seem 
to him who has examined the history of this ancient 
institution to have sprung around it, like mushrooms 
bursting from between the roots and vegetating under 
the shade of some mighty and venerable oak, the patri- 



DISSEVERANCE OF THE OPERATIVE ELEMENT. 69 

arch of the forest, whose huge trunk and wide- extended 
branches have protected them from the sun and the gale, 
and whose fruit, thrown off in autumn, has enriched and 
fattened the soil that gives these humbler plants their 
power of life and growth. 

But there is a more important deduction to be drawn 
from this narrative. In tracing the progress of Freema- 
sonry, we shall find it so intimately connected with the 
history of philosophy, of religion, and of art in all ages 
of the world, that it is evident that no Mason can expect 
thoroughly to understand the nature. of the institution, or 
to appreciate its character, unless he shall carefully study 
its annals, and make himself conversant with the facts 
of history, to which and from which it gives and receives 
a mutual influence. The brother who unfortunately sup- 
poses that the only requisites of a skilful Mason consist 
in repeating with fluency the ordinary lectures, or in cor- 
rectly opening and closing the lodge, or in giving with 
sufficient accuracy the modes of recognition, will hardly 
credit the assertion, that he whose knowledge of the 
" royal art " extends no farther than these preliminaries 
has scarcely advanced beyond the rudiments of our sci- 
ence. There is a far nobler series of doctrines with which 
Freemasonry is connected, and which no student ever 
began to investigate who did not find himself insensibly 
led on, from step to step in his researches, his love 
and admiration of the order increasing with the aug- 
mentation of his acquaintance with its character. It is 
this which constitutes the science and the philosophy of 
Freemasonry, and it is this alone which will return the 
scholar who devotes himself to the task a sevenfold 
reward for his labor. 



70 DISSEVERANCE OF THE OPERATIVE ELEMENT. 

With this view I propose, in the next place, to enter 
upon an examination of that science and philosophy as 
they are developed in the system of symbolism, which 
owes its existence to this peculiar origin and organization 
of the order, and without a knowledge of which, such 
as I have attempted to portray it in this preliminary 
inquiry, the science itself could never be understood. 




THE SYSTEM OF SYMBOLIC INSTRUCTION. 



/^j*"HE lectures of the English lodges, which are far 
a I more philosophical than our own, — although I do 
\£_y not believe that the system itself is in general as 
philosophically studied by our English brethren as by 
ourselves, — have beautifully defined Freemasonry to be 
" a science of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated 
by symbols." But allegory itself is nothing else but ver- 
bal symbolism ; it is the symbol of an idea, or of a series 
of ideas, not presented to the mind in an objective and 
visible form, but clothed in language, and exhibited in the 
form of a narrative. And therefore the English defini- 
tion amounts, in fact, to this : that Freemasonry is a 
scie?zce of morality, developed and inculcated by the 
ancient method of sy7?zbolism. It is this peculiar charac- 
ter as a symbolic institution, this entire adoption of the 
method of instruction by symbolism, which gives its 
whole identity to Freemasonry, and has caused it to differ 
from every other association that the ingenuity of man has 
devised. It is this that has bestowed upon it that attrac- 
tive form which has always secured the attachment of its 
disciples and its own perpetuity. 



71 



^2 THE SYSTEM OF SYMBOLIC INSTRUCTION. 

The Roman Catholic church * is, perhaps, the only 
contemporaneous institution which continues to cultivate, 
in any degree, the beautiful system of symbolism. But 
that which, in the Catholic church, is, in a great measure, 
incidental, and the fruit of development, is, in Freemason- 
ry, the very life-blood and soul of the institution, born 
with it at its birth, or, rather, the germ from which the 
tree has sprung, and still giving it support, nourishment, 
and even existence. Withdraw from Freemasonry its 
symbolism, and you take from the body its soul, leaving 
behind nothing but a lifeless mass of effete matter, fitted 
only for a rapid decay. 

Since, then, the science of symbolism forms so impor- 
tant a part of the system of Freemasonry, it will be well 
to commence any discussion of that subject by an investi- 
gation of the nature of symbols in general. 

There is no science so ancient as that of symbolism, j - 
and no mode of instruction has ever been so general as 

* Bishop England, in his " Explanation of the Mass," says that 
in every ceremony we must look for three meanings: "the first, 
the literal, natural, and, it may be said, the original meaning; the 
second, the figurative or emblematic signification ; and thirdly, 
the pious or religious meaning: frequently the two last will be 
found the same; sometimes all three will be found combined." 
Here lies the true difference between the symbolism of the church 
and that of Masonry. In the former, the symbolic meaning was 
an afterthought applied to the original, literal one; in the latter,' 
the symbolic was always the original signification of every 
ceremony. 

f " Was not all the knowledge 

Of the Egyptians writ in mystic symbols? 

Speak not the Scriptures oft in parables? 

Are not the choicest fables of the poets, 

That were the fountains and first springs of wisdom, 

Wrapped in perplexed allegories?" 

Ben Jonson, Alchemist, act ii. sc. i. 



THE SYSTEM OF SYMBOLIC INSTRUCTION. 73 

was the symbolic in former ages. " The first learning 
in the world," says the great antiquary, Dr. Stukely, 
" consisted chiefly of symbols. The wisdom of the 
Chaldeans, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Jews, of Zoroaster, 
Sanchoniathon, Pherecydes, Syrus, Pythagoras, Socrates, 
Plato, of all the ancients that is come to our hand, is 
symbolic." And the learned Faber remarks, that " alle- 
gory and personification were peculiarly agreeable to the 
genius of antiquity, and the simplicity of truth was 
continually sacrificed at the shrine of poetical decora- 
tion." 

In fact, man's earliest instruction was by symbols.* 
The objective character of a symbol is best calculated to 
be grasped by the infant mind, whether the infancy of 
that mind be considered nationally or individually. 
And hence, in the first ages of the world, in its infancy, 
all propositions, theological, political, or scientific, were 
expressed in the form of symbols. Thus the first reli- 
gions were eminently symbolical, because, as that great 
philosophical historian, Grote, has remarked, "At a time 
when language was yet in its infancy, visible symbols 
were the most vivid means of acting upon the minds of 
ignorant hearers." 

Again : children receive their elementary teaching in 
symbols. " A was an Archer ; " what is this but symbol- 
ism? The archer becomes to the infant mind the symbol 
of the letter A, just as, in after life, the letter becomes, to 
the more advanced mind, the symbol of a certain sound 

* The distinguished German mythologist Muller defines a 
symbol to be " an eternal, visible sign, with which a spiritual 
feeling, emotion, or idea is connected." I am not aware of a 
more comprehensive, and at the same time distinctive, definition. 



74 THE SYSTEM OF SYMBOLIC INSTRUCTION. 

of the human voice.* The first lesson received by a 
child in acquiring his alphabet is thus conveyed by sym- 
bolism. Even in the very formation of language, the 
medium of communication between man and man, and 
which must hence have been an elementary step in the 
progress of human improvement, it was found necessary 
to have recourse to symbols, for words are only and truly 
certain arbitrary symbols by which and through which 
we give an utterance to our ideas. The construction of 
language was, therefore, one of the first products of the 
science of symbolism. 

We must constantly bear in mind this fact, of the pri- 
mary existence and predominance of symbolism in the 
earliest times.f when we are investigating the nature of 
the ancient religions, with which the history of Freema- 
sonry is so intimately connected. The older the religion, 
the more the symbolism abounds. Modern religions may 
convey their dogmas in abstract propositions ; ancient 
religions always conveyed them in symbols. Thus there 
is more symbolism in the Egyptian religion than in the 

* And it may be added, that the word becomes a symbol of an 
idea; and hence, Harris, in his "Hermes," defines language to be 
" a system of articulate voices, the symbols of our ideas, but of those 
principally which are general or universal." — Hermes, book 
iii. ch. 3. 

t "Symbols," says Milller, "are evidently coeval with the 
human race; they result from the union of the soul with the body 
in man ; nature has implanted the feeling for them in the human 
heart." — Introductio?i to a Scientific System of Mythology, p. 196, 
Leitch's translation. — R. W. Mackay says, "The earliest instru- 
ments of education were symbols, the most universal symbols of 
the multitudinously present Deity, being earth or heaven, or some 
selected object, such as the sun or moon, a tree or a stone, famil- 
iarly seen in either of them." — Progress of the Intellect, vol. i. 
P- 134- 



THE SYSTEM OF SYMBOLIC INSTRUCTION. 75 

Jewish, more in the Jewish than in the Christian, more 
in the Christian than in the Mohammedan, and, lastly, 
more in the Roman than in the Protestant. 

But symbolism is not only the most ancient and gener- 
al, but it is also the most practically useful, of sciences. 
We have already seen how actively it operates in the 
early stages of life and of society. We have seen how 
the first ideas of men and of nations are impressed upon 
their minds by means of symbols. It was thus that the 
ancient peoples were almost wholly educated. 

" In the simpler stages of society," says one writer on 
this subject, " mankind can be instructed in the abstract 
knowledge of truths only by symbols and parables. 
Hence we find most heathen religions becoming mythic, 
or explaining their mysteries by allegories, or instructive 
incidents. Nay, God himself, knowing the nature of the 
creatures formed by him, has condescended, in the earlier 
revelations that he made of himself, to teach by symbols ; 
and the greatest of all teachers instructed the multitudes 
by parables.* The great exemplar of the ancient phi- 
losophy and the grand archetype of modern philosophy 
were alike distinguished by their possessing this faculty 



* Between the allegory, or parable, and the symbol, there is, as 
I have said, no essential difference. The Greek verb naga^akla), 
whence comes the word parable, and the verb ov/up allot in the 
same language, which is the root of the word symbol, both have 
the synonymous meaning "to compare." A parable is only a 
spoken symbol. The definition of a parable given by Adam 
Clarke is equally applicable to a symbol, viz. : " A comparison 
or similitude, in which one thing is compared with another, 
especially spiritual things with natural, by which means these 
spiritual things are better understood, and make a deeper impres- 
sion on the attentive mind." 



76 THE SYSTEM OF SYMBOLIC INSTRUCTION. 

in a high degree, and have told us that man was best 
instructed by similitudes." * 

Such is the system adopted in Freemasonry for the 
development and inculcation of the great religious and 
philosophical truths, of which it was, for so many years, 
the sole conservator. And it is for this reason that I have 
already remarked, that any inquiry into the symbolic 
character of Freemasonry, must be preceded by an inves- 
tigation of the nature of symbolism in general, if we 
would properly appreciate its particular use in the organ- 
ization of the masonic institution. 

* North British Review, August, 1851. Faber passes a similar 
encomium. " Hence the language of symbolism, being so purely 
a language of ideas, is, in one respect, more perfect than any 
ordinary language can be : it possesses the variegated elegance of 
synonymes without any of the obscurity which arises from the use 
of ambiguous terms." — On the Prophecies, ii. p. 63. 




XL 



THE SPECULATIVE SCIENCE AND THE OPERA- 
TIVE ART. 

^*§sU ND now, let us apply this doctrine of symbolism 
Ml to an investigation of the nature of a speculative 
^Z, /%/ science, as derived from an operative art ; for 
V_lx the fact is familiar to every one that Freemason- 
ry is of two kinds. We work, it is true, in speculative 
Masonry only, but our ancient brethren wrought in both 
operative and speculative ; and it is now well understood 
that the two branches are widely apart in design and in 
character — the one a mere useful art, intended for the 
protection and convenience of man and the gratification 
of his physical wants, the other a profound science, en- 
tering into abstruse investigations of the soul and a future 
existence, and originating in the craving need of humanity 
to know something that is above and beyond the mere 
outward life that surrounds us with its gross atmosphere 
here below.* Indeed, the only bond or link that unites 



* " By speculative Masonry we learn to subdue our passions, 
to act upon the square, to keep a tongue of good report, to 



78 SPECULATIVE SCIENCE AND OPERATIVE ART. 

speculative and operative Masonry is the symbolism 
that belongs altogether to the former, but which, through- 
out its whole extent, is derived from the latter. 

Our first inquiry, then, will be into the nature of the 
symbolism which operative gives to speculative Masonry ; 
and thoroughly to understand this — to know its origin, 
and its necessity, and its mode of application — we must 
begin with a reference to the condition of a long past 
period of time. 

Thousands of years ago, this science of symbolism was 
adopted by the sagacious priesthood of Egypt to convey 
the lessons of worldly wisdom and religious knowledge, 
which they thus communicated to their disciples.* Their 
science, their history, and their philosophy were thus 
concealed beneath an impenetrable veil from all the pro- 
fane, and only the few who had passed through the 
severe ordeal of initiation were put in possession of the 
key which enabled them to decipher and read with ease 
those mystic lessons which we still see engraved upon the 
obelisks, the tombs, and the sarcophagi, which lie scat- 

maintain secrecy, and practise charity." — Led. of Fel. Craft. 
But this is a very meagre definition, unworthy of the place it 
occupies in the lecture of the second degree. 

* " Animal worship among the Egyptians was the natural and 
unavoidable consequence of the misconception, by the vulgar, of 
those emblematical figures invented by the priests to record their 
own philosophical conception of absurd ideas. As the pictures 
and effigies suspended in early Christian churches, to com- 
memorate a person or an event, became in time objects of wor- 
ship to the vulgar, so, in Egypt, the esoteric or spiritual mean- 
ing of the emblems was lost in the gross materialism of the 
beholder. This esoteric and allegorical meaning was, however, 
preserved by the priests, and communicated in the mysteries alone 
to the initiated, while the uninstructed retained only the grosser 
conception." — Gliddon, Otia sEgyfitiaca, p. 94. 



SPECULATIVE SCIENCE AND OPERATIVE ART. 79 

tered, at this day, in endless profusion along the banks of 
the Nile. 

From the Egyptians the same method of symbolic in- 
struction was diffused among all the pagan nations of an- 
tiquity, and was used in all the ancient Mysteries * as the 
medium of communicating to the initiated the esoteric 
and secret doctrines for whose preservation and promul- 
gation these singular associations were formed. 

Moses, who, as Holy Writ informs us, was skilled in 
all the learning of Egypt, brought with him, from that 
cradle of the sciences, a perfect knowledge of the science 
of symbolism, as it was taught by the priests of Isis and 
Osiris, and applied it to the ceremonies with which he 
invested the purer religion of the people for whom he 
had been appointed to legislate. | 

Hence we learn, from the great Jewish historian, that, in 
the construction of the tabernacle, which gave the first 
model for the temple at Jerusalem, and afterwards for every 
masonic lodge, this principle of symbolism was applied to 
every part of it. Thus it was divided into three parts, to 
represent the three great elementary divisions of the uni- 

* " To perpetuate the esoteric signification of these symbols to 
the initiated, there were established the Mysteries, of which in- 
stitution we have still a trace in Freemasonry."— Gliddon, Otia 

j&gyp- P- 95- 

f Philojudseus says, that "Moses had been initiated by the 
Egyptians into the philosophy of symbols and hieroglyphics, as 
well as into the ritual of the holy animals." And Hengstenberg, 
in his learned work on "Egypt and the Books of Moses," con- 
clusively shows, by numerous examples, how direct were the 
Egyptian references of the Pentateuch ; in which fact, indeed, he 
recognizes " one of the most powerful arguments for its credibility 
and for its composition by Moses." — Hengstenberg, p. 239, 
Robbins's trans. 



8o SPECULATIVE SCIENCE AND OPERATIVE ART. 

verse — the land, the sea, and the air. The first two, or 
exterior portions, which w r ere accessible to the priests and 
the people, were symbolic of the land and the sea, which 
all men might inhabit; while the third, or interior divis- 
ion, — the holy of holies, — whose threshold no mortal 
dared to cross, and which was peculiarly consecrated 
to God, was emblematic of heaven, his dwelling-place. 
The veils, too, according to Josephus, were intended for 
symbolic instruction in their color and their materials. 
Collectively, they represented the four elements of the 
universe ; and, in passing, it may be observed that this 
notion of symbolizing the universe characterized all the 
ancient systems, both the true and the false, and that the 
remains of the principle are to be found everywhere, even 
at this day, pervading Masonry, which is but a develop- 
ment of these systems. In the four veils of the tabernacle, 
the white or fine linen signified the earth, from which flax 
was produced ; the scarlet signified fire, appropriately rep- 
resented by its flaming color ; the purple typified the sea, 
in allusion to the shell-fish murex, from which the tint 
was obtained ; and the blue, the color of the firmament, 
was emblematic of air.* 

It is not necessary to enter into a detail of the whole 
system of religious symbolism, as developed in the Mosaic 
ritual. It was but an application of the same principles 
of instruction, that pervaded all the surrounding Gentile 
nations, to the inculcation of truth. The very idea of the 
ark itself f was borrowed, as the discoveries of the modern 

* Josephus, Antiq. book iii. ch. 7. 

f The ark, or sacred boat, of the Egyptians frequently occurs 
on the walls of the temples. It was carried in great pomp by the 
priests on the occasion of the "procession of the shrines," by 



SPECULATIVE SCIENCE AND OPERATIVE ART. Si 

Egyptologists have shown us, from the banks of the Nile ; 
and the breastplate of the high priest, with its Urim and 
Thummim,* was indebted for its origin to a similar orna- 
ment worn by the Egyptian judge. The system was the 
same ; in its application, only, did it differ. 

With the tabernacle of Moses the temple of King Sol- 
omon is closely connected : the one was the archetype of 
the other. Now, it is at the building of that temple that 
we must place the origin of Freemasonry in its present 
organization : not that the system did not exist before, 
but that the union of its operative and speculative charac- 
ter, and the mutual dependence of one upon the other, 
were there first established. 

At the construction of this stupendous edifice — stupen- 
dous, not in magnitude, for many a parish church has 
since excelled it in size,f but stupendous in the wealth 
and magnificence of its ornaments — the wise king of 
Israel, with all that sagacity for which he was so emi- 
nently distinguished, and aided and counselled by the 
Gentile experience of the king of Tyre, and that immor- 
tal architect who superintended his workmen, saw at 
once the excellence and beauty of this method of incul- 
cating moral and religious truth, and gave, therefore, the 
impulse to that symbolic reference of material things to a 



means of staves passed through metal rings in its side. It was 
thus conducted into the temple, and deposited on a stand. The 
representations we have of it bear a striking resemblance to the 
Jewish ark, of which it is now admitted to have been the prototype. 

* "The Egyptian reference in the Urim and Thummim is espe- 
cially distinct and incontrovertible." — Hengstenberg, p. 158. 

t According to the estimate of Bishop Cumberland, it was only 
one hundred and nine feet in length, thirty-six in breadth, and 
fifty-four in height. 

6 



82 SPECULATIVE SCIENCE AND OPERATIVE ART. 

spiritual sense, which has ever since distinguished the 
institution of which he was the founder. ) 

If I deemed it necessary to substantiate the truth of the 
assertion that the mind of King Solomon was eminently 
symbolic in its propensities, I might easily refer to his 
writings, filled as they are to profusion with tropes and 
figures. Passing over the Book of Canticles, — that great 
lyrical drama, whose abstruse symbolism has not yet been 
fully evolved or explained, notwithstanding the vast num- 
ber of commentators who have labored at the task, — I 
might simply refer to that beautiful passage in the twelfth 
chapter of Ecclesiastes, so familiar to every Mason as 
being appropriated, in the ritual, to the ceremonies of the 
third degree, and in which a dilapidated building is meta- 
phorically made to represent the decays and infirmities 
of old age in the human body. This brief but eloquent 
description is itself an embodiment of much of our masonic 
symbolism, both as to the mode and the subject matter. 

In attempting any investigation into the symbolism of 
Freemasonry, the first thing that should engage our atten- 
tion is the general purport of the institution, and the mode 
in which its symbolism is developed. Let us first examine 
it as a whole, before we investigate its parts, just as we 
would first view, as critics, the general effect of a building, 
before we began to inquire into its architectural details. 

Looking, then, in this way, at the institution — coming 
down to us, as it has, from a remote age — having passed 
unaltered and unscathed through a thousand revolutions 
of nations — and engaging, as disciples in its school of 
mental labor, the intellectual of all times — the first thing 
that must naturally arrest the attention is the singular 
combination that it presents of an operative with a specu- 
lative organization — an art with a science — the technical 



SPECULATIVE SCIENCE AND OPERATIVE ART. 83 

terms and language of a mechanical profession with the 
abstruse teachings of a profound philosophy. 

Here it is before us — a venerable school, discoursing 
of the deepest subjects of wisdom, in which sages might 
alone find themselves appropriately employed, and yet 
having its birth and deriving its first life from a society 
of artisans, whose only object was, apparently, the con- 
struction of material edifices of stone and mortar. 

The nature, then, of this operative and speculative 
combination, is the first problem to be solved, and the 
symbolism which depends upon it is the first feature of 
the institution which is to be developed. 

Freemasonry, in its character as an operative art, is 
familiar to every one. As such, it is engaged in the 
application of the rules and principles of architecture to 
the construction of edifices for private and public use — 
houses for the dwelling-place of man, and temples for the 
worship of Deity. It abounds, like every other art, in 
the use of technical terms, and employs, in practice, an 
abundance of implements and materials which are pecu- 
liar to itself. 

Now, if the ends of operative Masonry had here 
ceased, — if this technical dialect and these technical im- 
plements had never been used for any other purpose, nor 
appropriated to any other object, than that of enabling its 
disciples to pursue their artistic labors with greater con- 
venience to themselves, — Freemasonry would never have 
existed. The same principles might, and in all proba- 
bility w T ould, have been developed in some other way ; but 
the organization, the name, the mode of instruction, would 
all have most materially differed. 

But the operative Masons, who founded the order, were 



84 SPECULATIVE SCIENCE AND OPERATIVE ART. 

not content with the mere material and manual part of 
their profession : they adjoined to it, under the wise in- 
structions of their leaders, a correlative branch of study. 

And hence, to the Freemason, this operative art has 
been symbolized in that intellectual deduction from it, 
which has been correctly called Speculative Masonry. 
At one time, each was an integrant part of one undivided 
system. Not that the period ever existed when every 
operative mason was acquainted with, or initiated into, 
the speculative science. Even now, there are thousands 
of skilful artisans who know as little of that as they do of 
the Hebrew language which was spoken by its founder. 
But operative Masonry was, in the inception of our his- 
tory, and is, in some measure, even now, the skeleton 
upon which was strung the living muscles, and tendons, 
and nerves of the speculative system. It was the block 
of marble — rude and unpolished it may have been — from 
which was sculptured the life-breathing statue.* 

Speculative Masonry (which is but another name for 
Freemasonary in its modern acceptation) may be briefly 
defined as the scientific application and the religious con- 
secration of the rules and principles, the language, the 
implements and materials of operative Masonry to the 
veneration of God, the purification of the heart, and the 
inculcation of the dogmas of a religious philosophy. 

* " Thus did our wise Grand Master contrive a plan, by 
mechanical and practical allusions, to instruct the craftsmen in 
principles of the most sublime speculative philosophy, tending to 
the glory of God, and to secure to them temporal blessings here 
and eternal life hereafter, as well as to unite the speculative and 
operative Masons, thereby forming.a twofold advantage, from the 
principles of geometry and architecture on the one part, and the 
precepts of wisdom and ethics on the other." — Calcott, Candid 
Disquisition, p. 31, ed. 1769- 








XII. 



THE SYMBOLISM OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 




HAVE said that the operative art is symbolized 
— that is to say, used as a symbol — in the spec- 
ulative science. Let us now inquire, as the sub- 
ject of the present essay, how this is done in refer- 
ence to a system of symbolism dependent for its construc- 
tion on types and figures derived from the temple of 
Solomon, and which we hence call the " Temple Sym- 
bolism of Freemasonry. " 

Bearing in mind that speculative Masonry dates its 
origin from the building of King Solomon's temple by 
Jewish and Tyrian artisans,* the first important fact that 
attracts the attention is, that the operative masons at 
Jerusalem were engaged in the construction of an earthly 
and material temple, to be dedicated to the service and 
worship* of God — a house in which Jehovah was to 
dwell visibly by his Shekinah, and whence he was, by the 



* This proposition I ask to be conceded ; the evidences of its 
truth are, however, abundant, were it necessary to produce them. 
The craft, generally, will, I presume, assent to it. 

85 



86 THE SYMBOLISM OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

Urim and Thummim, to send forth his oracles for the 
government and direction of his chosen people. 

Now, the operative art having, for us, ceased, we, as 
speculative Masons, symbolize the labors of our prede- 
cessors by engaging in the construction of a spiritual 
temple in our hearts, pure and spotless, fit for the dwell- 
ing-place of Him who is the author of purity — where 
God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, and 
whence every evil thought and unruly passion is to be 
banished, as the sinner and the Gentile were excluded 
from the sanctuary of the Jewish temple. 

This spiritualizing of the temple of Solomon is the 
first, the most prominent and most pervading of all the 
symbolic instructions of Freemasonry. It is the link that 
binds the operative and speculative divisions of the order. 
It is this which gives it its religious character. Take from 
Freemasonry its dependence on the temple, leave out 
of its ritual all reference to that sacred edifice, and to the 
legends connected with it, and the system itself must at 
once decay and die, or at best remain only as some fos- 
silized bone, imperfectly to show the nature of the living 
body to which it once belonged. 

Temple worship is in itself an ancient type of the 
religious sentiment in its progress towards spiritual ele- 
vation. As soon as a nation emerged, in the world's 
progress, out of Fetichism, or the worship of visible 
objects, — the most degraded form of idolatry, — its people 
began to establish a priesthood and to erect temples.* 

* "The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned 
To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave, 
And spread the roof ahove them — ere he framed 
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back 



THE SYMBOLISM OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 87 

The Scandinavians, the Celts, the Egyptians, and the 
Greeks, however much they may have differed in the 
ritual and the objects of their polytheistic worship, all 
were possessed of priests and temples. The Jews first 
constructed their tabernacle, or portable temple, and then, 
when time and opportunity permitted, transferred their 
monotheistic worship to that more permanent edifice 
which is now the subject of our contemplation. The 
mosque of the Mohammedan and the church or the 
chapel of the Christian are but embodiments of the same 
idea of temple worship in a simpler form. 

The adaptation, therefore, of the material temple to a 
science of symbolism would be an easy, and by no means 
a novel task, to both the Jewish and the Tyrian mind. 
Doubtless, at its original conception, the idea was rude 
and unembellished, to be perfected and polished only by 
future aggregations of succeeding intellects. And yet no 
biblical scholar will venture to deny that there was, in the 
mode of building, and in all the circumstances connected 
with the construction of King Solomon's temple, an ap- 
parent design to establish a foundation for symbolism.* 

The sound of anthems — in the darkling wood, 

Amid the cool and silence, he knelt down, 

And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks 

And supplication." — Bryant. 
* Theologians have always given a spiritual application to the 
temple of Solomon, referring it to the mysteries of the Christian 
dispensation. For this, consult all the biblical commentators. 
But I may particularly mention, on this subject, Bunyan's " Solo- 
mon's Temple Spiritualized," and a rare work in folio, by Samuel 
Lee, Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, published at London in 
1659, an d entitled " Orbis Miraculum, or the Temple of Solomon 
portrayed by Scripture Light." A copy of this scarce work, which 
treats very learnedly of " the spiritual mysteries of the gospel 
veiled under the temple," I have lately been, by good fortune, 
enabled to add to my library. 



8S THE SYMBOLISM OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

I propose now to illustrate, by a few examples, the 
method in which the speculative Masons have appropri- 
ated this design of King Solomon to their own use. 

To construct his earthly temple, the operative mason 
followed the architectural designs laid down on the trestle- 
board, or tracing-board, or book of plans of the architect. 
By these he hewed and squared his materials ; by these 
he raised his walls ; by these he constructed his arches ; 
and by these strength and durability, combined with grace 
and beauty, were bestowed upon the edifice which he 
was constructing. 

The trestle-board becomes, therefore, one of our ele- 
mentary symbols. For in the masonic ritual the specu- 
lative Mason is reminded that, as the operative artist 
erects his temporal building, in accordance with the rules 
and designs laid down on the trestle-board of the master- 
workman, so should he erect that spiritual building, of 
which the material is a type, in obedience to the rules and 
designs, the precepts and commands, laid down by the 
grand Architect of the universe, in those great books of 
nature and revelation, which constitute the spiritual 
trestle-board of every Freemason. 

The trestle-board is, then, the symbol of the natural 
and moral law. Like every other symbol of the order, 
it is universal and tolerant in its application ; and while, 
as Christian Masons, we cling with unfaltering integrity 
to that explanation which makes the Scriptures of both 
dispensations our trestle-board, we permit our Jewish and 
Mohammedan brethren to content themselves with the 
books of the Old Testament, or the Koran. Masonry 
does not interfere with the peculiar form or development 
of any one's religious faith. All that it asks is, that the 



THE SYMBOLISM OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 89 

interpretation of the symbol shall be according to what 
each one supposes to be the revealed will of his Creator. 
But so rigidly exacting is it that the symbol shall be pre- 
served, and, in some rational way, interpreted, that it 
peremptorily excludes the Atheist from its communion, 
because, believing in no Supreme Being, no divine 
Architect, he must necessarily be without a spiritual 
trestle-board on which the designs of that Being may be 
inscribed for his direction. 

But the operative mason required materials wherewith 
to construct his temple. There was, for instance, the 
rough ashlar — the stone in its rude and natural state — 
unformed and unpolished, as it had been lying in the quar- 
ries of Tyre from the foundation of the earth. This stone 
was to be hewed and squared, to be fitted and adjusted, 
by simple, but appropriate implements, until it became 
a perfect ashlar, or well-finished stone, ready to take its 
destined place in the building. 

Here, then, again, in these materials do we find other 
elementary symbols. The rough and unpolished stone is 
a symbol of man's natural state — ignorant, uncultivated, 
and, as the Roman historian expresses it, "grovelling to 
the earth, like the beasts of the field, and obedient to 
every sordid appetite ; " * but when education has ex- 
erted its salutary influences in expanding his intellect, in 
restraining his hitherto unruly passions, and purifying his 
life, he is then represented by the perfect ashlar, or finished 
stone, which, under the skilful hands of the workman, 
has been smoothed, and squared, and fitted for its appro- 
priate place in the building. 

* Veluti pecora, quae natura finxit prona et obedientia ventri. — 
Sallust, Bell. Catil. i. 



90 THE SYMBOLISM OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

Here an interesting circumstance in the history of the 
preparation of these materials has been seized and beau- 
tifully appropriated by our symbolic science. We learn 
from the account of the temple, contained in the First 
Book of Kings, that " The house, when it was in building, 
was built of stone, made ready before it was brought 
thither, so that there was neither hammer nor axe, nor 
any tool of iron, heard in the house while it was in 
building." * 

Now, this mode of construction, undoubtedly adopted 
to avoid confusion and discord among so many thousand 
workmen,! has been selected as an elementary symbol of 
concord and harmony — virtues which are not more essen- 
tial to the preservation and perpetuity of our own society 
than they are to that of every human association. 

The perfect ashlar, therefore, — the stone thus fitted for 
its appropriate position in the temple, — becomes not only 
a symbol of human perfection (in itself, of course, only a 
comparative term), but also, when we refer to the mode 
in which it was prepared, of that species of perfection 
which results from the concord and union of men in 
society. It is, in fact, a symbol of the social character 
of the institution. 

There are other elementary symbols, to which I may 
hereafter have occasion to revert ; the three, however, 
already described, — the rough ashlar, the perfect ashlar, 
and the trestle-board, — and which, from their importance, 

* i Kings vi. 7. -» 

t In further illustration of the wisdom of these temple con- 
trivances, it may be mentioned that, by marks placed upon the 
materials which had been thus prepared at a distance, the individ- 
ual production of every craftsman was easily ascertained, and the 
means were provided of rewarding merit and punishing indolence. 



THE SYMBOLISM OF SOLOMONS TEMPLE. 91 

have received the name of "jewels," will be sufficient to 
give some idea of the nature of what may be called the 
" symbolic alphabet " of Masonry. Let us now proceed 
to a brief consideration of the method in which this alpha- 
bet of the science is applied to the more elevated and ab- 
struser portions of the system, and which, as the temple 
constitutes its most important type, I have chosen to call 
the " Temple Symbolism of Masonry." 

Both Scripture and tradition inform us that, at the build- 
ing of King Solomon's temple, the masons were divided 
into different classes, each engaged in different tasks. We 
learn, from the Second Book of Chronicles, that these 
classes were the bearers of burdens, the hewers of stones, 
and the overseers, called by the old masonic writers the 
Ish sabal, the Ish chotzeb, and the Menatzchim. Now, 
without pretending to say that the modern institution has 
preserved precisely the same system of regulations as that 
which was observed at the temple, we shall certainly find 
a similarity in these divisions to the Apprentices, Fellow 
Crafts and Master Masons of our own day. At all events, 
the three divisions made by King Solomon, in the work- 
men at Jerusalem, have been adopted as the types of the 
three degrees now practised in speculative Masonry ; and 
as such we are, therefore, to consider them. The mode 
in which these three divisions of workmen labored in con- 
structing the temple, has been beautifully symbolized in 
speculative Masonry, and constitutes an important and 
interesting part of temple symbolism. 

Thus we know, from our own experience among mod- 
ern workmen, who still pursue the same method, as well 
as from the traditions of the order, that the implements 
used in the quarries were few and simple, the work there 



92 THE SYMBOLISM OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

requiring necessarily, indeed, but two tools, namely, the 
twenty-four inch gauge, or two foot rule, and the com- 
mon gavel, or stone-cutter's hammer. With the former 
implement, the operative mason took the necessary dimen- 
sions of the stone he was about to prepare, and with the 
latter, by repeated blows, skilfully applied, he broke oft' 
every unnecessary protuberance, and rendered it smooth 
and square, and fit to take its place in the building. 

And thus, in the first degree of speculative Masonry, 
the Entered Apprentice receives these simple implements, 
as the emblematic working tools of his profession, with 
their appropriate symbolical instruction. To the opera- 
tive mason their mechanical and practical use alone is 
srg. 'fied, and nothing more of value does their presence 
convey to his mind. To the speculative Mason the sight 
of them is suggestive of far nobler and sublimer thoughts ; 
they teach him to measure, not stones, but time ; not to 
smooth and polish the marble for the builder's use, but 
to purify and cleanse his heart from every vice and im- 
perfection that would render it unfit for a place in the 
spiritual temple of his body. 

In the symbolic alphabet of Freemasonry, therefore, the 
twenty-four inch gauge is a symbol of time well employed ; 
the common gavel, of the purification of the heart. 

Here we may pause for a moment to refer to one of the 
coincidences between Freemasonry and those Mysteries* 
which formed so important a part of the ancient religions, 



* " Each of the pagan gods had (besides the public and ofieti) a 
secret -worship paid unto him; to which none were admitted but 
those who had been selected by preparatory ceremonies, called 
Initiation. This secret -worship was termed the Mysteries." — 
Warburton, Div. Leg. I. i. p. 189. 



THE SYMBOLISM OF SOLOMON S TEMPLE. 93 

and which coincidences have led the writers on this sub- 
ject to the formation of a well-supported theory that there 
was a common connection between them. The coinci- 
dence to which I at present allude is this : in all these 
Mysteries — the incipient ceremony of initiation — the 
first step taken by the candidate was a lustration or puri- 
fication. The aspirant was not permitted to enter the 
sacred vestibule, or take any part in the secret formula 
of initiation, until, by water or by fire, he was emblemati- 
cally purified from the corruptions of the world which he 
was about to leave behind. I need not, after this, do more 
than suggest the similarity of this formula, in principle, to 
a corresponding one in Freemasonry, where the first sym- 
bols presented to the apprentice are those which inculr t^ 
a purification of the heart, of which the purification of the 
body in the ancient Mysteries was symbolic. 

We no longer use the bath or the fountain, because in 
our philosophical system the symbolization is more ab- 
stract, if I may use the term ; but we present the aspirant 
with the lamb-skin apron, the gauge, and the gavel, as 
symbols of a spiritual purification. The design is the 
same, but the mode in which it is accomplished is dif- 
ferent. 

Let us now resume the connected series of temple 
symbolism. 

At the building of the temple, the stones having been 
thus prepared by the w T orkmen of the lowest degree (the 
Apprentices, as we now call them, the aspirants of the 
ancient Mysteries), w 7 e are informed that they were trans- 
ported to the site of the edifice on Mount Moriah, and 
were there placed in the hands of another class of work- 
men, who are now technically called the Fellow Crafts, 



94 THE SYMBOLISM OF SOLOMONS TEMPLE. 

and who correspond to the Mystes, or those who had re- 
ceived the second degree of the ancient Mysteries. At this 
stage of the operative work more extensive and important 
labors were to be performed, and accordingly a greater 
amount of skill and knowledge was required of those to 
whom these labors were intrusted. The stones, having 
been prepared by the Apprentices* (for hereafter, in speak- 
ing of the workmen of the temple, I shall use the equiva- 
lent appellations of the more modern Masons), were now 
to be deposited in their destined places in the building, 
and the massive walls were to be erected. For these 
purposes implements of a higher and more complicated 
character than the gauge and gavel were necessary. The 
square was required to fit the joints with sufficient accu- 
racy, the level to run the courses in a horizontal line, and 
the plumb to erect the whole with due regard to perfect 
perpendicularity. This portion of the labor finds its sym- 
bolism in the second degree of the speculative science, 
and in applying this symbolism we still continue to refer 
to the idea of erecting a spiritual temple in the heart. 

The necessary preparations, then, having been made in 
the first degree, the lessons having been received by which 
the aspirant is taught to commence the labor of life with 
the purification of the heart, as a Fellow Craft he contin- 
ues the task by cultivating those virtues which give form 

* It must be remarked, however, that many of the Fellow Crafts 
were also stone-cutters in the mountains, chotzeb bahor, and, with 
their nicer implements, more accurately adjusted the stones which 
had been imperfectly prepared by the apprentices. This fact does 
not at all affect the character of the symbolism we are describing. 
The due preparation of the materials, the symbol of purification, 
was necessarily continued in all the degrees. The task of purifica- 
tion never ceases. 



THE SYMBOLISM OF SOLOMON S TEMPLE. 95 

and impression to the character, as well adapted stones 
give shape and stability to the building. And hence the 
u working tools " of the Fellow Craft are referred, in 
their symbolic application, to those virtues. In the 
alphabet of symbolism, we find the square, the level, 
and the plumb. appropriated to this second degree. The 
square is a symbol denoting morality. It teaches us to 
apply the unerring principles of moral science to every 
action of our lives, to see that all the motives and results 
of our conduct shall coincide with the dictates of divine 
justice, and that all our thoughts, words, and deeds shall 
harmoniously conspire, like the well-adjusted and rightly- 
squared joints of an edifice, to produce a smooth, un- 
broken life of virtue. 

The plumb is a symbol of rectitude of conduct, and 
inculcates that integrity of life and undeviating course of 
moral uprightness which can alone distinguish the good 
and just man. As the operative workman erects his tem- 
poral building with strict observance of that plumb-line, 
which will not permit him to deviate a hair's breadth to 
the right or to the left, so the speculative Mason, guided 
by the unerring principles of right and truth inculcated 
in the symbolic teachings of the same implement, is stead- 
fast in the pursuit of truth, neither bending beneath the 
frowns of adversity nor yielding to the seductions of 
prosperity.* 

The level, the last of the three working tools of the 
operative craftsman, is a symbol of equality of station. 
Not that equality of civil or social position which is to be 

* The classical reader will here be reminded of that beautiful 
passage of Horace, commencing with "Justum et tenacem pro- 
positi virum." — Lib. iii. od. 3. 



0,6 THE SYMBOLISM OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

found only in the vain dreams of the anarchist or the 
Utopian, but that great moral and physical equality which 
affects the whole human race as the children of one com- 
mon Father, who causes his sun to shine and his rain to 
fall on all alike, and who has so appointed the universal 
lot of humanity, that death, the leveller of all human 
greatness, is made to visit with equal pace the prince's 
palace and the peasant's hut.* 

Here, then, we have three more signs or hieroglyphics 
added to our alphabet of symbolism. Others there are in 
this degree, but they belong to a higher grade of interpre- 
tation, and cannot be appropriately discussed in an essay 
on temple symbolism only. 

We now reach the third degree, the Master Masons of 
the modern science, and the Epopts, or beholders of the 
sacred things in the ancient Mysteries. 

In the third degree the symbolic allusions to the temple 
of Solomon, and the implements of Masonry employed 
in its construction, are extended and fully completed. At 
the building of that edifice, we have already seen that one 
class of the workmen was employed in the preparation 
of the materials, while another was engaged in placing 
those materials in their proper position. But there was 
a third and higher class, — the master workmen, — whose 
duty it was to superintend the two other classes, and to 
see that the stones were not only duly prepared, but that 
the most exact accuracy had been observed in giving to 
them their true juxtaposition in the edifice. It was then 
only that the last and finishing laborf was performed, and 

* " Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regum- 
que turres." — Hor. lib. i. od. 4. 

f It is worth noticing that the verb natzach, from which the title 



THE SYMBOLISM OF SOLOMONS TEMPLE. 97 

the cement was applied by these skilful workmen, to 
secure the materials in their appropriate places, and to 
unite the building in one enduring and connected mass. 
Hence the trowel, we are informed, was the most im- 
portant, though of course not the only, implement in use 
among the master builders. They did not permit this 
last, indelible operation to be performed by any hands 
less skilful than their own. They required that the crafts- 
men should prove the correctness of their work by the 
square, level, and plumb, and test, by these unerring in- 
struments, the accuracy of their joints ; and, when satisfied 
of the just arrangement of every part, the cement, which 
was to give an unchangeable union to the whole, was then 
applied by themselves. 

Hence, in speculative Masonry, the trowel has been 
assigned to the third degree as its proper implement, and 
the symbolic meaning which accompanies it has a strict 
and beautiful reference to the purposes for which it was 
used in the ancient temple ; for as it was there employed 
" to spread the cement which united the building in one 
common mass," so is it selected as the symbol of broth- 
erly love — that cement whose object is to unite our mys- 
tic association in one sacred and harmonious band of 
brethren. 

of the menatzchim (the overseers or Master Masons in the ancient 
temple), is derived, signifies also in Hebrew to be perfected, to be 
completed. The third degree is the perfection of the symbolism 
of the temple, and its lessons lead us to the completion of life. In 
like manner the Mysteries, says Christie, " were termed re XetccI, 
perfections, because they were supposed to induce a perfectness of 
life. Those who were purified by them were styled tsIou^epoi, 
and reTeXeGjuevoi, that is, brought to perfection." — Observations 
on Ouvarojf's Essay on the Eletisinian Mysteries, p. 183. 

7 



98 THE SYMBOLISM OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

Here, then, we perceive the first, or, as I have already 
called it, the elementary form of our symbolism — the 
adaptation of the terms, and implements, and processes 
of an operative art to a speculative science. The temple 
is now completed. The stones having been hewed, 
squared, and numbered in the quarries by the appren- 
tices, — having been properly adjusted by the craftsmen, 
and finally secured in their appropriate places, with the 
strongest and purest cement, by the master builders, — 
the temple of King Solomon presented, in its finished con- 
dition, so noble an appearance of sublimity and grandeur 
as to well deserve to be selected, as it has been, for the 
type or symbol of that immortal temple of the body, 
to which Christ significantly and symbolically alluded 
when he said, u Destroy this temple, and in three days I 
will raise it up." 

This idea of representing the interior and spiritual man 
by a material temple is so apposite in all its parts as to 
have occurred on more than one occasion to the first 
teachers of Christianity. Christ himself repeatedly al- 
ludes to it in other passages, and the eloquent and figu- 
rative St. Paul beautifully extends the idea in one of his 
Epistles to the Corinthians, in the following language : 
" Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that 
the spirit of God dwelleth in you?" And again, in a 
subsequent passage of the same Epistle, he reiterates the 
idea in a more positive form : " What, know ye not that 
vour body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in 
you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" 
And Dr. Adam Clarke, while commenting on this latter 
passage, makes the very allusions which have been the 
topic of discussion in the present essay. " As truly," 



THE SYMBOLISM OF SOLOMONS TEMPLE. 



99 



says he, " as the living God dwelt in the Mosaic taberna- 
cle and in the temple of Solomon, so truly does the Holy 
Ghost dwell in the souls of genuine Christians ; and as 
the temple and all its utensils were holy, separated from 
all common and profane uses, arid dedicated alone to 
the service of God, so the bodies of genuine Christians 
are holy, and should be employed in the service of God 
alone." 

The idea, therefore, of making the temple a symbol of 
the body, is not exclusively masonic ; but the mode of 
treating the symbolism by a reference to the particular 
temple of Solomon, and to the operative art engaged in 
its construction, is peculiar to Freemasonry. It is this 
which isolates it from all other similar associations. 
Having many things in common with the secret societies 
and religious Mysteries of antiquity, in this " temple sym- 
bolism " it differs from them all. 




XIII. 



THE FORM OF THE LODGE. 




(lL#N the last essay, I treated of that symbolism of 
masonic system which makes the temple of 
isalem the archetype of a lodge, and in which, 
in consequence, all the symbols are referred to 
the connection of a speculative science with an operative 
art. I propose in the present to discourse of a higher 
and abstruser mode of symbolism ; and it may be observed 
that, in coming to this topic, we arrive, for the first time, 
at that chain of resemblances which unites Freemasonry 
with the ancient systems of religion, and which has given 
rise, among masonic writers, to the names of Pure and 
Spurious Freemasonry — the pure Freemasonry being that 
system of philosophical religion which, coming through 
the line of the patriarchs, was eventually modified by 
influences exerted at the building of King Solomon's 
temple, and the spurious being the same system as it 
was altered and corrupted by the polytheism of the 
nations of heathendom.* 



* Dr. Oliver, in the first or preliminary lecture of his " Histori- 
cal Landmarks," very accurately describes the difference between 

100 



THE FORM OF THE LODGE. IOI 

As this abstruser mode of symbolism, if less peculiar 
to the masonic system, is, however, far more interesting 
than the one which was treated in the previous essay, — 
because it is more philosophical, — I propose to give an 
extended investigation of its character. And, in the first 
place, there is what may be called an elementary view of 
this abstruser symbolism, which seems almost to be a 
corollary from what has already been described in the 
preceding article. 

As each individual mason has been supposed to be the 
symbol of a spiritual temple, — " a temple not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens," — the lodge or collected 
assemblage of these masons, is adopted as a symbol of 
the world.* 

the pure or primitive Freemasonry of the Noachites, and the 
spurious Freemasonry of the heathens. 

* The idea of the world, as symbolically representing God's 
temple, has been thus beautifully developed in a hymn by N. P. 
Willis, written for the dedication of a church : — 

" The perfect world by Adam trod 
Was the first temple built by God; 
His fiat laid the corner stone, 
And heaved its pillars, one by one. 

" He hung its starry roof on high — 
The broad, illimitable sky; 
He spread its pavement, green and bright, 
And curtained it with morning light. 

" The mountains in their places stood, 
The sea, the sky, and ' all was good ; ' 
And when its first pure praises rang, 
The ' morning stars together sang.' 

" Lord, 'tis not ours to make the sea, 
And earth, and sky, a house for thee ; 
But in thy sight our offering stands, 
A humbler temple, made with hands." 



102 THE FORM OF THE LODGE. 

It is in the first degree of Masonry, more particularly, 
that this species of symbolism is developed. In its details 
it derives the characteristics of resemblance upon which 
it is founded, from the form, the supports, the ornaments, 
and general construction and internal organization of a 
lodge, in all of which the symbolic reference to the world 
is beautifully and consistently sustained. 

The form of a masonic lodge is said to be a parallelo- 
gram, or oblong square ; its greatest length being from 
east to west, its breadth from north to south. A square, 
a circle, a triangle, or any other form but that of an 
oblo77g square, would be eminently incorrect and unma- 
sonic, because such a figure would not be an expression 
of the symbolic idea which is intended to be conveyed. 

Now, as the world is a globe, or, to speak more accu- 
rately, an oblate spheroid, the attempt to make an oblong 
square its symbol would seem, at first view, to present 
insuperable difficulties. But the system of masonic sym- 
bolism has stood the test of too long an experience to be 
easily found at fault ; and therefore this very symbol 
furnishes a striking evidence of the antiquity of the order. 
At the Solomonic era — the era of the building of the 
temple at Jerusalem — the world, it must be remem- 
bered, was supposed to have that very oblong form,* 
which has been here symbolized. If, for instance, on a 
map of the world we should inscribe an oblong figure 
whose boundary lines would circumscribe and include 

* " The idea," says Dudley, " that the earth is a level surface, 
and of a square form, is so likely to have been entertained by 
persons of little experience and limited observation, that it may 
be justlj' supposed to have prevailed generally in the early ages 
of the world." — Naology, p. 7. 



THE FORM OF THE LODGE. 



IO3 



just that portion which was known to be inhabited in the 
days of Solomon, these lines, running a short distance 
north and south of the Mediterranean Sea, and extending 
from Spain in the west to Asia Minor in the east, would 
form an oblong square, including the southern shore of 
Europe, the northern shore of Africa, and the western 
district of Asia, the length of the parallelogram being 
about sixty degrees from east to west, and its breadth 
being about twenty degrees from north to south. This 
oblong square, thus enclosing the whole of what was then 
supposed to be the habitable globe,* would precisely 
represent what is symbolically said to be the form of the 
lodge, while the Pillars of Hercules in the west, on each 
side of the straits of Gades or Gibraltar, might appropri- 
ately be referred to the two pillars that stood at the porch 
of the temple. 

NORTH. 




SOUTH. 

* The quadrangular form of the earth is preserved in almost all 
the scriptural allusions that are made to it. Thus Isaiah (xi. 12) 



104 THE FORM OF THE LODGE. 

A masonic lodge is, therefore, a symbol of the world. 

This symbol is sometimes, by a very usual figure of 
speech, extended, in its application, and the world and 
the universe are made synonymous, when the lodge 
becomes, of course, a symbol of the universe. But in 
this case the definition of the symbol is extended, and to 
the ideas of length and breadth are added those of height 
and depth, and the lodge is said to assume the form of a 
double cube.* The solid contents of the earth below 
and the expanse of the heavens above will then give the 
outlines of the cube, and the whole created universe f will 
be included within the symbolic limits of a mason's lodge. 

By always remembering that the lodge is the symbol, 
in its form and extent, of the world, we are enabled, 
readily and rationally, to explain many other symbols, 
attached principally to the first degree ; and we are ena- 
bled to collate and compare them with similar symbols 
of other kindred institutions of antiquity, for it should be 

sajs, " The Lord shall gather together the dispersed of Judah from 
the/our corners of the earth ; " and we find in the Apocalypse (xx. 
9) the prophetic version of " four angels standing on the four 
corners of the earth." 

* "The form of the lodge ought to be a double cube, as an ex- 
pressive emblem of the powers of darkness and light in the crea- 
tion." — Oliver, Landmarks, i. p. 135, note 37. 

f Not that whole visible universe, in its modern signification, as 
including solar systems upon solar systems, rolling in illimitable 
space, but in the more contracted view of the ancients, where the 
earth formed the floor, and the sky the ceiling. " To the vulgar 
and untaught eye," says Dudley, " the heaven or sky above the 
earth appears to be co-extensive with the earth, and to take the 
same form, enclosing a cubical space, of which the earth was the 
base, the heaven or sky the upper surface." — Naology, 7. — And 
it is to this notion of the universe that the masonic symbol of the 
lodge refers. 



THE FORM OF THE LODGE. IO5 

observed that this symbolism of the world, represented 
by a place of initiation, widely pervaded all the ancient 
rites and mysteries. 

It will, no doubt, be interesting to extend our investi- 
gations on this subject, with a particular view to the 
method in which this symbolism of the world or the 
universe was developed, in some of its most prominent 
details ; and for this purpose I shall select the mystical 
explanation of the officers of a lodge, its covering, and 
a portion of its or?ia?nents. 




XIV. 



ff 



THE OFFICERS OF A LODGE. 

HE Three Principal Officers of a lodge are, it is 
needless to say, situated in the east, the west, and 
the south. Now, bearing in mind that the lodge 
is a symbol of the world, or the universe, the reference 
of these three officers to the sun at its rising, its setting, 
and its meridian height, must at once suggest itself. 

This is the first development of the symbol, and a very 
brief inquiry will furnish ample evidence of its antiquity 
and its universality. 

In the Brahminical initiations of Hindostan, which are 
among the earliest that have been transmitted to us, 
and may almost be considered as the cradle of all the 
others of subsequent ages and various countries, the 
ceremonies were performed in vast caverns, the remains of 
some of which, at Salsette, Elephanta, and a few other 
places, will give the spectator but a very inadequate idea 
of the extent and splendor of these ancient Indian lodges.* 

* " These rocky shrines, the formation of which Mr. Grose sup- 
poses to have been a labor equal to that of erecting the Pyramids 

106 



THE OFFICERS OF A LODGE. 107 

More imperfect remains than these are still to be found in 
great numbers throughout Hindostan and Cashmere. 
Their form was sometimes that of a cross, emblematic 
of the four elements of which the earth is composed, — 
fire, water, air, and earth, — but more generally an oval, 
as a representation of the mundane egg, which, in the 
ancient systems, was a symbol of the world.* 

The interior of the cavern of initiation was lighted by 
innumerable lamps, and there sat in the east, the west, 
and the south the principal Hierophants, or explainers of 
the Mysteries, as the representatives of Brahma, Vishnu, 
and Siva. Now, Brahma was the supreme deity of the 

of Egypt, are of various height, extent, and depth. They are 
partitioned out, by the labor of the hammer and the chisel, into 
many separate chambers, and the roof, which in the pagoda of 
Elephanta is flat, but in that of Salsette is arched, is supported by 
rows of pillars of great thickness, and arranged with much 
regularity. The walls are crowded with gigantic figures of men 
and women, engaged in various actions, and portrayed in various 
whimsical attitudes ; and they are adorned with several evident 
symbols of the religion now prevailing in India. Above, as in a 
sky, once probably adorned with gold and azure, in the same 
manner as Mr. Savary lately observed in the ruinous remains of 
some ancient Egyptian temples, are seen floating the children of 
imagination, genii and dewtahs, in multitudes, and along the 
cornice, in high relief, are the figures of elephants, horses, and 
lions, executed with great accuracy. Two of the principal figures 
at Salsette are twenty-seven feet in height, and of proportionate 
magnitude; the very bust only of the triple-headed deity in the 
grand pagoda of Elephanta measures fifteen feet from the base to 
the top of the cap, while the face of another, if Mr. Grose, who 
measured it, may be credited, is above five feet in length, and of 
corresponding breadth." — Maurice, Ltd. A?rt. vol. ii. p. 135. 

* According to Faber, the egg was a symbol of the world or 
megacosm, and also of the ark, or microcosm, as the lunette or 
crescent was a symbol of the Great Father, the egg and lunette — 
which was the hieroglyphic of the god Lunus, at Heliopolis — was 
a symbol of the world proceeding from the Great Father. — Pagan 
Idolatry, vol. i. b. i. ch. iv. 



IOS THE OFFICERS OF A LODGE. 

Hindoos, borrowed or derived from the Sim-god of their 
Sabean ancestors, and Vishnu and Siva were but mani- 
festations of his attributes. We learn from the Indian 
Pantheon that " when the sun rises in the east, he is 
Brahma ; when he gains his meridian in the south, he is 
Siva ; and when he sets in the west, he is Vishnu." 

Again, in the Zoroasteric mysteries of Persia, the tem- 
ple of initiation was circular, being made so to repre- 
sent the universe ; and the sun in the east, with the 
surrounding zodiac, formed an indispensable part of the 
ceremony of reception.* 

In the Egyptian mysteries of Osiris, the same reference 
to the sun is contained, and Herodotus, who was himself 
an initiate, intimates that the ceremonies consisted in the 
representation of a Sun-god, who had been incarnate, that 
is, had appeared upon earth, or rose, and who was at 
length put to death by Typhon, the symbol of darkness, 
typical of the sun's setting. 

In the great mysteries of Eleusis,f which were cele- 
brated at Athens, we learn from St. Chrysostom, as well 

* Zoroaster taught thatthe sun was the most perfect fire of God, 
the throne of his glory, and the residence of his divine presence, 
and he therefore instructed his disciples " to direct all their wor- 
ship to God first towards the sun (which they called Mithras), and 
next towards their sacred fires, as being the things in which God 
chiefly dwelt; and their ordinary way of worship was to do so 
towards both. For when they came before these fires to worship, 
they always approached them on the west side, that, having their 
faces towards them and also towards the rising sun at the same 
time, they might direct their worship to both. And in this posture 
they always performed every act of their worship." — Prideaux, 
Connection, i. 216. 

f " The mysteries of Ceres (or Eleusis) are principally dis- 
tinguished from all others as having been the depositories of cer- 
tain traditions coeval with the world." — Ouvaroff, Essay on the 
Mysteries of Elensis, p. 6. 



THE OFFICERS OF A LODGE. IO9 

as other authorities, that the temple of initiation was 
symbolic of the universe, and we know that one of the 
officers represented the sun.* 

In the Celtic mysteries of the Druids, the temple of 
initiation was either oval, to represent the mundane egg 
— a symbol, as has already been said, of the world ; or 
circular, because the circle was a symbol of the universe ; 
or cruciform, in allusion to the four elements, or constitu- 
ents of the universe. In the Island of Lewis, in Scot- 
land, there is one combining the cruciform and circular 
form. There is a circle, consisting of twelve stones, 
while three more are placed in the east, and as many in 
the west and south, and thirty-eight, in two parallel lines, 
in the north, forming an avenue to the circular temple. 
In the centre of the circle is the image of the god. In 
the initiations into these rites, the solar deity performed an 
important part, and the celebrations commenced at day- 
break, when the sun was hailed on his appearance above 
the horizon as " the god of victory, the king who rises in 
light and ascends the sky." 

But I need not multiply these instances of sun-worship. 
Every country and religion of the ancient world would 
afford one.f Sufficient has been cited to show the com- 

* The dadouchus, or torch-bearer, carried a symbol of the sun. 

t "Indeed, the most ancient superstition of all nations," says 
Maurice, " has been the worship of the sun, as the lord of heaven 
and the governor of the world ; and in particular it prevailed in 
Phoenicia, Chaldaea, Egypt, and from later information we may 
add, Peru and Mexico, represented in a variety of ways, and con- 
cealed under a multitude of fanciful names. Through all the 
revolutions of time the great luminary of heaven hath exacted 
from the generations of men the tribute of devotion." — Indian 
Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 91. 



IIO THE OFFICERS OF A LODGE. 

plete coincidence, in reference to the sun, between the 
symbolism of Freemasonry and that of the ancient rites 
and Mysteries, and to suggest for them a common origin, 
the sun being always in the former system, from the 
earliest times of the primitive or patriarchal Masonry, 
considered simply as a manifestation of the Wisdom, 
Strength, and Beauty of the Divine Architect, visibly 
represented by the position of the three principal officers 
of a lodge, while by the latter, in their degeneration 
from, and corruption of the true Noachic faith, it was 
adopted as the special object of adoration. 




XV. 



THE POINT WITHIN A CIRCLE. 



I ^b'HE Point within a Circle is another symbol of 
m\ great importance in Freemasonry, and commands 
^^y/ peculiar attention in this connection with the an- 
cient symbolism of the universe and the solar orb. 
Everybody who has read a masonic "Monitor" is well 
acquainted with the usual explanation of this symbol. 
We are told that the point represents an individual 
brother, the circle the boundary line of his duty to God 
and man, and the two perpendicular parallel lines the 
patron saints of the order — St. John the Baptist and St. 
John the Evangelist. 

Now, this explanation, trite and meagre as it is, may 
do very well for the exoteric teaching of the order ; but 
the question at this time is, not how it has been explained 
by modern lecturers and masonic system-makers, but 
what was the ancient interpretation of the symbol, and 
how should it be read as a sacred hieroglyphic in refer- 
ence to the true philosophic system which constitutes the 
real essence and character of Freemasonry? 



112 THE POINT WITHIN A CIRCLE. 

Perfectly to understand this symbol, I must refer, as a 
preliminary matter, to the worship of the Phallus, a 
peculiar modification of sun-worship, which prevailed to 
a great extent among the nations of antiquity. 

The Phallus was a sculptured representation of the 
membrum virile, or male organ of generation,* and the 
worship of it is said to have originated in Egypt, where, 
after the murder of Osiris by Typhon, which is sym- 
bolically to be explained as the destruction or deprivation 
of the sun's light by night, Isis, his wife, or the symbol 
of nature, in the search for his mutilated body, is said to 
have found all the parts except the organs of generation, 
which myth is simply symbolic of the fact, that the sun 
having set, its fecundating and invigorating power had 
ceased. The Phallus, therefore, as the symbol of the 
male generative principle, was very universally venerated 
among the ancients,! and that too as a religious rite, 
without the slightest reference to any impure or lascivious 

* Facciolatus thus defines the Phallus : " penis ligneus, vel 
vitreus, vel coriaceus, quern in Bacchi festis plaustro impositum 
per rura et urbes magno honore circumferebant." — Lex. in voc. 

f The exhibition of these images in a colossal form, before the 
gates of ancient temples, was common. Lucian tells us of two 
colossal Phalli, each one hundred and eighty feet high, which 
stood in the fore court of the temple at Hierapolis. Mailer, in his 
" Ancient Art and its Remains," mentions, on the authority of 
Leake, the fact that a colossal Phallus, which once stood on the 
top of the tomb of the Lydian king Halyattes, is now lying near 
the same spot; it is not an entire Phallus, but only the head of 
one; it is twelve feet in diameter below and nine feet over the 
glands. The Phallus has even been found, so universal was* this 
worship, among the savages of America. Dr. Arthaut discovered, 
in the year 1790, a marble Phallic image in a cave of the island of 
St. Domingo. — Clavel, Hist. Pittoresq. des Religions, p. 9. 



THE POINT WITHIN A CIRCLE. II3 

application.* He is supposed, by some commentators, to 
be the god mentioned under the name of Baal-peor, in the 
Book of Numbers,! as having been worshipped by the 
idolatrous Moabites. Among the eastern nations of India 
the same symbol was prevalent, under the name of " Lin- 
gam." But the Phallus or Lingam was a representation 
of the male principle only. To perfect the circle of 
generation it is necessary to advance one step farther. 
Accordingly we find in the Cteis of the Greeks, and the 
Toni of the Indians, a symbol of the female generative 
principle, of co-extensive prevalence with the Phallus. 
The Cteis was a circular and concave pedestal, or recep- 
tacle, on which the Phallus or column rested, and from the 
centre of which it sprang. 

The union of the Phallus and Cteis, or the Lingam and 
Yoni, in one compound figure, as an object of adoration, 
was the most usual mode of representation. This was in 

* Sonnerat (Voj'age aux Indes Orient, i. p. 118) observes, that 
the professors of this worship were of the purest principles and 
most unblemished conduct, and it seems never to have entered 
into the heads of the Indian legislator and people that anything 
natural could be grossly obscene. — Sir William Jones remarks 
(Asiatic Researches, i. 254), that from the earliest periods the wo- 
men of Asia, Greece, and Italy wore this symbol as a jewel, and 
Clavel tells us that a similar usage prevails at this day among the 
women in some of the villages of Brittany. Seely tells us that the 
Lingam, or Indian Phallus, is an emblem as frequently met with 
in Hindostan as the cross is in Catholic countries. — Wonders of 
Elora, p. 278. 

f Num. xxv. 1-3. See also Psalm cvi. 28: " They joined them- 
selves also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead." 
This'last expression, according to RusseL, has a distinct reference 
to the physical qualities of matter, and to the time when death, by 
the winter absence of the solar heat, gets, as it were, possession 
of the earth. Baal-peor was, he says, the sun exercising his 
powers of fecundity. — Connection of Sacred and Profane History. 

8 



114 THE POINT WITHIN A CIRCLE. 

strict accordance with the whole system of ancient my- 
thology, which was founded upon a worship of the prolific 
powers of nature. All the deities of pagan antiquity, 
however numerous they may be, can always be reduced 
to the two different forms of the generative principle — 
the active, or male, and the passive, or female. Hence 
the gods were always arranged in pairs, as Jupiter and 
Juno, Bacchus and Venus, Osiris and Isis. But the 
ancients went farther. Believing that the procreative and 
productive powers of nature might be conceived to exist 
in the same individual, they made the older of their deities 
hermaphrodite, and used the term dcyyevodelvg, or man- 
virgin, to denote the union of the two sexes in the same 
divine person.* 

Thus, in one of the Orphic Hymns, we find this line : — 

" Zsvg aQarjv yevETO, Zsvg ajufiyoTog stiXsto vvjuqpr]." 
Jove was created a male and an unspotted virgin. 

And Plutarch, in his tract " On Isis and Osiris," says, 
" God, who is a male and female intelligence, being both 
life and light, brought forth another intelligence, the 
Creator of the World." 

Now, this hermaphrodism of the Supreme Divinity 
was again supposed to be represented by the sun, which 
was the male generative energy, and by nature, or the 
universe, which was the female prolific principle.! And 

* Is there not a seeming reference to this thought of divine 
hermaphrodism in the well-known passage of Genesis? " So God 
created man in his own image, in the image of God created he 
him: male and female created he them." And so being created 
" male and female," they were " in the image of God." 

f The world being animated by man, says Creuzer, in his 
learned work on Symbolism, received from him the two sexes, 



THE POINT WITHIN A CIRCLE. 115 

this union was symbolized in different ways, but princi- 
pally by tJie -point within tJie circle, the point indicating 
the sun, and the circle the universe, invigorated and fer- 
tilized by his generative rays. And in some of the Indian 
cave-temples, this allusion was made more manifest by 
the inscription of the signs of the zodiac on the circle. 

So far, then, we arrive at the true interpretation of the 
masonic symbolism of the point within the circle. It is 
the same thing, but under a different form, as the Master 
and Wardens of a lodge. The Master and Wardens are 
symbols of the sun, the lodge of the universe, or world, 
just as the point is the symbol of the same sun, and the 
surrounding circle of the universe. 

But the two perpendicular parallel lines remain to be 
explained. Every one is familiar with the very recent 
interpretation, that they represent the two Saints John, 
the Baptist and the Evangelist. But this modern exposi- 
tion must be abandoned, if we desire to obtain the true 
ancient signification. 

In the first place, we must call to mind the fact that, at 
two particular points of his course, the sun is found in 
the zodiacal signs of Cancer and Capricorn. These 
points are astronomically distinguished as the summer 
and winter solstice. When the sun is in these points, he 

represented by heaven and the earth. Heaven, as the fecundating 
principle, was male, and the source of fire; the earth, as the 
fecundated, was female, and the source of humidity. All things 
issued from the alliance of these two principles. The vivifying 
powers of the heavens are concentrated in the sun, and the earth, 
eternally fixed in the place which it occupies, receives the emana- 
tions from the sun, through the medium of the moon, which sheds 
upon the earth the germs which the sun had deposited in its 
fertile bosom. The Lingam is at once the symbol and the 
mystery of this religious idea. 



\ 



Il6 THE POINT WITHIN A CIRCLE. 

has reached his greatest northern and southern declina- 
tion, and produces the most evident effects on the temper- 
ature of the seasons, and on the length of the days and 
nights. These points, if we suppose the circle to repre- 
sent the sun's apparent course, will be indicated by the 
points where the parallel lines touch the circle, or, in 
other words, the parallels will indicate the limits of the 
sun's extreme northern and southern declination, when 
he arrives at the solstitial points of Cancer and Capricorn. 
But the days when the sun reaches these points are, 
respectively, the 21st of June and the 226. of December, 
and this will account for their subsequent application to 
the two Saints John, whose anniversaries have been 
placed by the church near those days. 




XVI. 



THE COVERING OF THE LODGE. 



/^^HE Covering of the lodge is another, and must be 
/ j our last reference to this symbolism of the world 
\£_ J or the universe. The mere mention of the fact 
that this covering is figuratively supposed to be " a 
clouded canopy," or the firmament, on which the host of 
stars is represented, will be enough to indicate the con- 
tinned allusion to the symbolism of the world. The 
lodge, as a representative of the world, is of course sup- 
posed to have ao other roof than the heavens ; * and it 
would scarcely be necessary to enter into any discussion 
on the subject, were it not that another symbol — the 
theological ladder — is so intimately connected with it, 
that the one nLiurally suggests the other. Now, this 
mystic ladder, which connects the ground floor of the 

* Such was the opinion of some of the ancient sun-worshippers, 
whose adorations were alwaj-s performed in the open air, because 
they thought no temple was spacious enough to contain the sun ; 
and hence the saying, " Mundus universus est templum solis " — 
the universe is the temple of the sun. Like our ancient brethren, 
they worshipped only on the highest hills. Another analogy. 

117 



113 THE COVERING OF THE LODGE. 

lodge with its roof or covering, is another important and 
interesting link, which binds, with one common chain, 
the sj-mbolism and ceremonies of Freemasonry, arid the 
symbolism and rites of the ancient initiations. 

This mystical ladder, which in Masonry is referred to 
" the theological ladder, which Jacob in his vision saw, 
reaching from earth to heaven," was widely dispersed 
among the religions of antiquity, where it was always 
supposed to consist of seven rounds or steps. 

For instance, in the Mysteries of Mithras, in Persia, 
where there were seven stages or degrees of initiation, 
there was erected in the temples, or rather caves, — for it 
was in them that the initiation was conducted, — a high 
ladder, of seven steps or gates, each of which was dedi- 
cated to one of the planets, which was typified by one of 
the metals, the topmost step representing the sun, so that, 
beginning at the bottom, we have Saturn represented by 
lead, Venus by tin, Jupiter by brass, Mercury by iron, 
Mars by a mixed metal, the Moon by silver, and the Sun 
by gold, the whole being a symbol of the sidereal progress 
of the solar orb through the universe. 

In the Mysteries of Brahma we find the same reference 
to the ladder of seven steps ; but here the names were 
different, although there was the same allusion to the 
symbol of the universe. The seven steps were emblem- 
atical of the seven worlds which constituted the Indian 
universe. The lowest was the Earth ; the second, the 
World of Reexistence ; the third, Heaven ; the fourth, 
the Middle World, or intermediate region between the 
lower and upper worlds ; the fifth, the World of Births, 
in which souls are again born ; the sixth, the Mansion of 
the Blessed ; and the seventh, or topmost round, the 



THE COVERING OF THE LODGE. 119 

Sphere of Truth, the abode of Brahma, he himself being 
but a symbol of the sun, and hence we arrive once 
more at the masonic symbolism of the universe and the 
solar orb. 

Dr. Oliver thinks that in the Scandinavian Mysteries 
he has found the mystic ladder in the sacred tree Tdrasil ; * 
but here the reference to the septenary division is so im- 
perfect, or at least abstruse, that I am unwilling to press 
it into our catalogue of coincidences, although there is 
no doubt that we shall find in this sacred tree the same 
allusion as in the ladder of Jacob, to an ascent from earth, 
where its roots were planted, to heaven, where its 
branches expanded, which ascent being but a change 
from mortality to immortality, from time to eternity, was 
the doctrine taught in all the initiations. The ascent of 
the ladder or of the tree was the ascent from life here to 
life hereafter — from earth to heaven. 

It is unnecessary to carry these parallelisms any farther. 
Any one can, however, see in them an undoubted refer- 
ence to that septenary division which so universally pre- 
vailed throughout the ancient world, and the influence 
of which is still felt even in the common day life and 
observances of our time. Seven was, among the Hebrews, 
their perfect number ; and hence we see it continually 
recurring in all their sacred rites. The creation was per- 

* Asgard, the abode of the gods, is shaded by the ash tree, 
Tdrasil, where the gods assemble every day to do justice. The 
branches of this tree extend themselves over the whole world, and 
reach above the heavens. It hath three roots, extremely distant 
from each other: one of them is among the gods; the second is 
among the giants, where the abyss formerly was; the third covers 
Niflheim, or hell, and under this root is the fountain Vergelmer, 
whence flow the infernal rivers. — Bdda, Fab. 8. 



™ 



1 20 THE COVERING OF THE LODGE. 

fected in seven days ; seven priests, with seven trumpets, 
encompassed the walls of Jericho for seven days ; Noah 
received seven days' notice of the commencement of the 
deluge, and seven persons accompanied him into the ark, 
which rested on Mount Ararat on the seventh month ; 
Solomon was seven years in building the temple : and 
there are hundreds of other instances of the prominence 
of this talismanic number, if there were either time or 
necessity to cite them. 

Among the Gentiles the same number was equally 
sacred. Pythagoras called it a " venerable number." 
The septenary division of time into weeks of seven days, 
although not universal, as has been generally supposed, 
was sufficiently so to indicate the influence of the number. 
And it is remarkable, as perhaps in some way referring 
to the seven-stepped ladder which we have been consid- 
ering, that in the ancient Mysteries, as Apuleius informs 
us, the candidate was seven times washed in the conse- 
crated waters of ablution. 

There is, then, an anomaly in giving to the mystical 
ladder of Masonry only three rounds. It is an anomaly, 
however, with which Masonry has had nothing to do. 
The error arose from the ignorance of those inventors 
who first engraved the masonic symbols for our monitors. 
The ladder of Masonry, like the equipollent ladders of its 
kindred institutions, always had seven steps, although in 
modern times the three principal or upper ones are alone 
alluded to. These rounds, beginning at the lowest, are 
Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, Justice, Faith, 
Hope,, and Charity. Charity, therefore, takes the same 
place in the ladder of masonic virtues as the sun does 
in the ladder of planets. In the ladder of metals we 



THE COVERING OF THE LODGE. 121 

find gold, and in that of colors yellow, occupying the 
same elevated position. Now, St. Paul explains Charity 
as signifying, not alms-giving, which is the modern pop- 
ular meaning, but love — that love which u suffereth long 
and is kind ; " and when, in our lectures on this subject, 
we speak of it as the greatest of virtues, because, when 
Faith is lost and Hope has ceased, it extends " beyond 
the grave to realms of endless bliss," we there refer 
it to the Divine Love of our Creator. But Portal, in 
his Essay on Symbolic Colors, informs us that the sun 
represents Divine Love, and gold indicates the goodness 
of God. 

So that if Charity is equivalent to Divine Love, and 
Divine Love is represented by the sun, and lastly, if 
Charity be the topmost round of the masonic ladder, 
then again we arrive, as the result of our researches, at 
the symbol so often already repeated of the solar orb. 
The natural sun or the spiritual sun — the sun, either 
as the vivifying principle of animated nature, and there- 
fore the special object of adoration, or as the most promi- 
nent instrument of the Creator's benevolence — was ever a 
leading idea in the symbolism of antiquity. 

Its prevalence, therefore, in the masonic institution, is 
a pregnant evidence of the close analogy existing between 
it and all these systems. How that analogy was first 
introduced, and how it is to be explained, without detri- 
ment to the purity and truthfulness of our own religious 
character, would involve a long inquiry into the origin 
of Freemasonry, and the history of its connection with 
the ancient systems. 

These researches might have been extended still far- 



122 THE COVERING OF THE LODGE. 

ther ; enough, however, has been said to establish the 
following leading principles : — 

i. That Freemasonry is, strictly speaking, a science 
of symbolism. 

2. That in this symbolism it bears a striking analogy 
to the same science, as seen in the mystic rites of the 
ancient religions. 

3. That as in these ancient religions the universe was 
symbolized to the candidate, and the sun, as its vivifying 
principle, made the object of his adoration, or at least 
of his veneration, so, in Masonry, the lodge is made the 
representative of the world or the universe, and the sun 
is presented as its most prominent symbol. 

4. That this identity of symbolism proves an identity 
of origin, which identity of origin can be shown to be 
strictly compatible with the true religious sentiment of 
Masonry. 

5. And fifthly and lastly, that the whole symbolism of 
Freemasonry has an exclusive reference to what the 
Kabalists have called the ALGABIL — the Master 
Builder — him whom Freemasons have designated as 
the Grand Architect of the Universe. 




XVII. 



RITUALISTIC SYMBOLISM. 



m 



E have hitherto been engaged in the con- 
sideration of these simple symbols, which 
appear to express one single and indepen- 
dent idea. They have sometimes been called the " alpha- 
bet of Freemasonry," but improperly, I think, since the 
letters of the alphabet have, in themselves, unlike these 
masonic symbols, no significance, but are simply the 
component parts of words, themselves the representatives 
of ideas. 

These masonic symbols rather may be compared to 
the elementary characters of the Chinese language, each 
of which denotes an idea ; or, still better, to the hiero- 
glyphics of the ancient Egyptians, in which one object 
was represented in full by another which bore some 
subjective relation to it, as the wind was represented by 
the wings of a bird, or courage by the head and shoulders 
of a lion. 

It is in the same way that in Masonry the plumb 
represents rectitude, the level, human equality, and the 



124 RITUALISTIC SYMBOLISM. 

trowel, concord or harmony. Each is, in itself, inde- 
pendent, each expresses a single elementary idea. 

But we now arrive at a higher division of masonic 
symbolism, which, passing beyond these tangible sym- 
bols, brings us to those which are of a more abstruse 
nature, and which, as being developed in a ceremonial 
form, controlled and directed by the ritual of the order, 
may be designated as the ritualistic symbolism of 
Freemasonry. 

It is to this higher division that I now invite atten- 
tion ; and for the purpose of exemplifying the definition 
that I have given, I shall select a few of the most prom- 
inent and interesting ceremonies of the ritual. 

Our first researches were into the symbolism of objects ; 
our next will be into the symbolism of ceremonies. 

In the explanations which I shall venture to give of 
this ritualistic symbolism, or the symbolism of ceremonies, 
a reference will constantly be made to what has so often 
already been alluded to, namely, to the analogy existing 
between the system of Freemasonry and the ancient rites 
and Mysteries, and hence we will again develop the 
identity of their origin. 

Each of the degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry contains 
some of these ritualistic symbols : the lessons of the whole 
order are, indeed, veiled in their allegoric clothing ; but 
it is only to the most important that I can find oppor- 
tunity to refer. Such, among others, are the rites of 
discalceation, of investiture, of circumambulation, and of 
intrusting. Each of these will furnish an appropriate 
subject for consideration. 




XVIII. 

THE RITE OF DISCALCEATION. 

^S^HE rite of discalceation^ or uncovering the feet 
£\ on approaching holy ground, is derived from the 
\£J^/ Latin word discalceare, to pluck off one's shoes. 
The usage has the prestige of antiquity and universality 
in its favor. 

That it not only very generally prevailed, but that its 
symbolic signification was well understood in the days of 
Moses, we learn from that passage of Exodus where the 
angel of the Lord, at the burning bush, exclaims to the 
patriarch, " Draw not nigh hither ; put off thy shoes 
from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is 
holy ground." * Clarke f thinks it is from this command 
that the Eastern nations have derived the custom of per- 
forming all their acts of religious worship with bare feet. 
But it is much more probable that the ceremony was in 
use long anterior to the circumstance of the burning bush, 
and that the Jewish lawgiver at once recognized it as a 
well-known sign of reverence. 



* Exod. iii. 5. 



f Commentaries in loco. 

125 



126 THE RITE OF DISCALCEATION. 

Bishop Patrick * entertains this opinion, and thinks 
that the custom was derived from the ancient patriarchs, 
and was transmitted by a general tradition to succeeding 
times. 

Abundant evidence might be furnished from ancient 
authors of the existence of the custom among all nations, 
both Jewish and Gentile. A few of them, principally 
collected by Dr. Mede, must be curious and interesting. 

The direction of Pythagoras to his disciples was in 
these words: i<, Avv7t6dT]Tog Ove xal nQocrxweij" that is, Of- 
fer sacrifice and worship with thy shoes off. f 

Justin Martyr says that those who came to worship in 
the sanctuaries and temples of the Gentiles were com- 
manded by their priests to put off their shoes. 

Drusius, in his Notes on the Book of Joshua, says that 
among most of the Eastern nations it was a pious duty to 
tread the pavement of the temple with unshod feet. J 

Maimonides, the great expounder of the Jewish law, 
asserts that " it was not lawful for a man to come into 
the mountain of God's house with his shoes on his feet, 
or with his staff, or in his working garments, or with dust 
on his feet." § 

Rabbi Solomon, commenting on the command in 
Leviticus xix. 30, " Ye shall reverence my sanctuary," 
makes the same remark in relation to this custom. On 
this subject Dr. Oliver observes, "Now, the act of going 

* Commentary on Exod. iii. 5. 

t Iamblichi Vita Pythag. c. 105. In another place he says, 
u Oveiv %Qr\ upvndderov, xal ngbg rot Ieq& nqoGTdvat," — We must 
sacrifice and enter temples with the shoes off". Ibid, c 85. 

% " Quod etiam nunc apud plerasque Orientis nationes piaculum 
sit, calceato pede templorum pavimenta calcasse." 

§ Beth Habbechirah, cap. vii. 



THE RITE OF DISCALCEATION. 1 27 

with naked feet was always considered a token of humili- 
ty and reverence ; and the priests, in the temple worship, 
always officiated with feet uncovered, although it w 7 as 
frequently injurious to their health." * 

Mede quotes Zago Zaba, an Ethiopian bishop, who 
was ambassador from David, King of Abyssinia, to John 
III., of Portugal, as saying, "We are not permitted to 
enter the church, except barefooted." f 

The Mohammedans, when about to perform their 
devotions, always leave their slippers at the door of 
the mosque. The Druids practised the same custom 
whenever they celebrated their sacred rites ; and the 
ancient Peruvians are said always to have left their shoes 
at the porch when they entered the magnificent temple 
consecrated to the worship of the sun. 

Adam Clarke thinks that the custom of worshipping 
the Deity barefooted was so general among all nations of 
antiquity, that he assigns it as one of his thirteen proofs 
that the whole human race have been derived from one 
family.;}: 

A theory might be advanced as follows : The shoes, or 
sandals, were worn on ordinary occasions as a protection 
from the defilement of the ground. To continue to wear 
them, then, in a consecrated place, would be a tacit in- 
sinuation that the ground there was equally polluted and 
capable of producing defilement. But, as the very char- 
acter of a holy and consecrated spot precludes the idea 
of any sort of defilement or impurity, the acknowledg- 

* Histor. Landm. vol. ii. p. 481. 

t " Non datur nobis potestas adeundi templum nisi nudibus 
pedibus." 

X Commentaries, ut supra. 



128 THE RITE OF DISCALCEATION. 

ment that such was the case was conveyed, symbolically, 
by divesting the feet of all that protection from pollution 
and uncleanness which would be necessary in unconse- 
crated places. 

So, in modern times, we uncover the head to express 
the sentiment of esteem and respect. Now, in former 
days, when there was more violence to be apprehended 
than now, the casque, or helmet, afforded an ample pro- 
tection from any sudden blow of an unexpected adversary. 
But we can fear no violence from one whom we esteem 
and respect ; and, therefore, to deprive the head of its 
accustomed protection, is to give an evidence of our un- 
limited confidence in the person to whom the gesture is 
made. 

The rite of discalceation is, therefore, a symbol of 
reverence. It signifies, in the language of symbolism, 
that the spot which is about to be approached in this 
humble and reverential manner is consecrated to some 
holy purpose. 

Now, as to all that has been said, the intelligent mason 
will at once see its application to the third degree. Of 
all the degrees of Masonry, this is by far the most impor- 
tant and sublime. The solemn lessons which it teaches, 
the sacred scene which it represents, and the impressive 
ceremonies with which it is conducted, are all calculated 
to inspire the mind with feelings of awe and reverence. 
Into the holy of holies of the temple, when the ark of the 
covenant had been deposited in its appropriate place, and 
the Shekinah was hovering over it, the high priest alone, 
and on one day only in the whole year, was permitted, 
after the most careful purification, to enter with bare feet, 
and to pronounce, with fearful veneration, the tetragram- 
maton or omnific word. 



THE RITE OF DISCALCEATION. I 20, 

And into the Master Mason's lodge — this holy of holies 
of the masonic temple, where the solemn truths of death 
and immortality are inculcated — the aspirant, on enter- 
ing, should purify his heart from every contamination, 
and remember, with a due sense of their symbolic appli- 
cation, those words that once broke upon the astonished 
ears of the old patriarch, " Put off' thy shoes from off thy 
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." 
9 




XIX. 



THE RITE OF INVESTITURE. 




NOTHER ritualistic symbolism, of still more 
importance and interest, is the rite of inves- 
titure. 

The rite of investiture, called, in the collo- 
quially technical language of the order, the cere?no?iy of 
clothing, brings us at once to the consideration of that 
well-known symbol of Freemasonry, the Lamb-skin 
Apron. 

This rite of investiture, or the placing upon the aspi- 
rant some garment, as an indication of his appropriate 
preparation for the ceremonies in which he was about to 
engage, prevailed in all the ancient initiations. A few 
of them only it will be requisite to consider. 

Thus in the Levitical economy of the Israelites the 
priests always wore the abnet, or linen apron, or girdle, 
as a part of the investiture of the priesthood. This, with 
the other garments, was to be worn, as the text expresses 
it, " for glory and for beauty," or, as it has been explained 
by a learned commentator, " as emblematical of that holi- 

130 



THE RITE OF INVESTITURE. 131 

ness and purity which ever characterize the divine na- 
ture, and the worship which is worthy of him." 

In the Persian Mysteries of Mithras, the candidate, 
having first received light, was invested with a girdle, a 
crown or mitre, a purple tunic, and, lastly, a white 
apron. 

In the initiations practised in Hindostan, in the cere- 
mony of investiture was substituted the sash, or sacred 
zennaar, consisting of a cord, composed of nine threads 
twisted into a knot at the end, and hanging from the left 
shoulder to the right hip. This was, perhaps, the type 
of the masonic scarf, which is, or ought to be, always 
worn in the same position. 

The Jewish sect of the Essenes, who approached nearer 
than any other secret institution of antiquity to Freema- 
sonry in their organization, always invested their novices 
with a white robe. 

And, lastly, in the Scandinavian rites, where the mili- 
tary genius of the people had introduced a warlike species 
of initiation, instead of the apron we find the candidate 
receiving a white shield, which was, however, always 
presented with the accompaniment of some symbolic in- 
struction, not very dissimilar to that which is connected 
with the masonic apron. 

In all these modes of investiture, no matter what was 
the material or the form, the symbolic signification in- 
tended to be conveyed was that of purity. 

And hence, in Freemasonry, the same symbolism is 
communicated by the apron, which, because it is the first 
gift which the aspirant receives, — the first symbol in 
which he is instructed, — has been called the " badge of a 
mason." And most appropriately has it been so called ; 



132 THE RITE OF INVESTITURE. 

for, whatever may be the future advancement of the 
candidate in the " Royal Art," into whatever deeper 
arcana his devotion to the mystic institution or his thirst 
for knowledge may carry him, with the apron — his 
first investiture — he never parts. Changing, perhaps, its 
form and its decorations, and conveying at each step some 
new and beautiful allusion, its substance is still there, and 
it continues to claim the honorable title by which it was 
first made known to him on the night of his initiation. 

The apron derives its significance, as the symbol of 
purity, from two sources — from its color and from its 
material. In each of these points of view it is, then, to 
be considered, before its symbolism can be properly 
appreciated. 

And, first, the color of the apron must be an unspotted 
white. This color has, in all ages, been esteemed an 
emblem of innocence and purity. It was with reference 
to this symbolism that a portion of the vestments of the 
Jewish priesthood was directed to be made white. And 
hence Aaron was commanded, when he entered into the 
holy of holies to make an expiation for the sins of the 
people, to appear clothed in white linen, with his linen 
apron, or girdle, about his loins. It is worthy of remark 
that the Hebrew word laban, which signifies to make 
white, denotes also to purify ; and hence we find, through- 
out the Scriptures, many allusions to that color as an 
emblem of purity. " Though thy sins be as scarlet," 
says Isaiah, "they shall be white as snow;" and Jere- 
miah, in describing the once innocent condition of Zion, 
says, " Her Nazarites were purer than snow ; they were 
whiter than milk." 

In the Apocalypse a white sto?ze was the reward prom- 



THE RITE OF INVESTITURE. 133 

ised by the Spirit to those who overcame ; and in the 
same mystical book the apostle is instructed to say, that 
fine linen, clean and white, is the righteousness of the 
saints. 

In the early ages of the Christian church a white gar- 
ment was always placed upon the catechumen who had 
been recently baptized, to denote that he had been cleansed 
from his former sins, and was thenceforth to lead a life of 
innocence and purity. Hence it was presented to him 
with this appropriate charge : " Receive the white and 
undefiled garment, and produce it unspotted before the 
tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you may obtain 
immortal life." 

The white alb still constitutes a part of the vestments 
of the Roman church, and its color is said by Bishop 
England " to excite to piety by teaching us the purity 
of heart and body which we should possess in being 
present at the holy mysteries." 

The heathens paid the same attention to the symbolic 
signification of this color. The Egyptians, for instance, 
decorated the head of their principal deity, Osiris, with a 
white tiara, and the priests wore robes of the whitest 
linen. 

In the school of Pythagoras, the sacred hymns w T ere 
chanted by the disciples clothed in garments of white. 
The Druids gave white vestments to those of their in- 
itiates who had arrived at the ultimate degree, or that of 
perfection. And this was intended, according to their 
ritual, to teach the aspirant that none were admitted to 
that honor but such as were cleansed from all impurities, 
both of body and mind. 

In all the Mysteries and religious rites of the other 



134 THE RITE OF INVESTITURE. 

nations of antiquity the same use of white garments was 
observed. 

Portal, in his " Treatise on Symbolic Colors," says 
that " white, the symbol of the divinity and of the priest- 
hood, represents divine wisdom ; applied to a young girl, 
it denotes virginity ; to an accused person, innocence ; to 
a judge, justice ; " and he adds — what in reference to its 
use in Masonry will be peculiarly appropriate — that," as 
a characteristic sign of purity, it exhibits a promise of 
hope after death." We see, therefore, the propriety of 
adopting this color in the masonic system as a symbol 
of purity. This symbolism pervades the whole of the 
ritual, from the lowest to the highest degree, wherever 
white vestments or white decorations are used. 

As to the material of the apron, this is imperatively 
required to be of lamb-skin. No other substance, such as 
linen, silk, or satin, could be substituted without entirely 
destroying the symbolism of the vestment. Now, the 
lamb has, as the ritual expresses it, "been, in all ages, 
deemed an emblem of innocence ; " but more particularly 
in the Jewish and Christian churches has this symbolism 
been observed. Instances of this need hardly be cited. 
They abound throughout the Old Testament, where we 
learn that a lamb was selected by the Israelites for their 
sin and burnt offerings, and in the New, where the word 
lci77ib is almost constantly employed as synonymous with 
innocence. " The paschal lamb," says Didron, " which 
was eaten by the Israelites on the night preceding their 
departure, is the type of that other divine Lamb, of whom 
Christians are to partake at Easter, in order thereby to 
free themselves from the bondage in which they are held 
by vice." The paschal lamb, a lamb bearing a cross, 



THE RITE OF INVESTITURE. 135 

was, therefore, from an early period, depicted by the 
Christians as referring to Christ crucified, " that spotless 
Lamb of God, who was slain from the foundation of the 
world." 

The material, then, of the apron, unites with its color 
to give to the investiture of a mason the symbolic signifi- 
cation of purity. This, then, together with the fact which 
I have already shown, that the ceremony of investiture 
was. common to all the ancient religious rites, will form 
another proof of the identity of origin between these and 
the masonic institution. 

This symbolism also indicates the sacred and religious 
character which its founders sought to impose upon 
Freemasonry, and to which both the moral and physical 
qualifications of our candidates undoubtedly have a refer- 
ence, since it is with the masonic lodge as it was with 
the Jewish church, where it was declared that " no man 
that had a blemish should come nigh unto the altar ; " 
and with the heathen priesthood, among whom we are 
told that it was thought to be a dishonor to the gods to 
be served by any one that was maimed, lame, or in any 
other way imperfect ; and with both, also, in requiring 
that no one should approach the sacred things who was 
not pure and uncorrupt. 

The pure, unspotted lamb-skin apron is, then, in Ma- 
sonry, symbolic of that perfection of body and purity 
of mind which are essential qualifications in all who 
would participate in its sacred mysteries. 




XX. 



THE SYMBOLISM OF THE GLOVES. 



/^^HE investiture with the gloves is very closely 
m\ connected with the investiture with the apron, 
^^ J and the consideration of the symbolism of the 
one naturally follows the consideration of the symbolism 
of the other. 

In the continental rites of Masonry, as practised in 
France, in Germany, and in other countries of Europe, 
it is an invariable custom to present the newly-initiated 
candidate not only, as we do, with a white leather apron, 
but also with two pairs of white kid gloves, one a man's 
pair for himself, and the other a woman's, to be presented 
by him in turn to his wife or his betrothed, according to 
the custom of the German masons, or, according to the 
French, to the female whom he most esteems, which, 
indeed, amounts, or should amount, to the same thing. 

There is in this, of course, as there is in everything 
else which pertains to Freemasonry, a symbolism. The 
gloves given to the candidate for himself are intended to 
teach him that the acts of a mason should be as pure and 



THE SYMBOLISM OF THE GLOVES. I37 

spotless as the gloves now given to him. In the German 
lodges, the word used for acts is of course handlungen, 
or handlings, " the works of his hands," which makes 
the symbolic idea more impressive. 

Dr. Robert Plott — no friend of Masonry, but still an 
historian of much research — says, in his " Natural His- 
tory of Staffordshire," that the Society of Freemasons, in 
his time (and he wrote in 1660), presented their candidates 
with gloves for themselves and their wives. This shows 
that the custom still preserved on the continent of 
Europe was formerly practised in England, although there 
as well as in America, it is discontinued, which is, per- 
haps, to be regretted. 

But although the presentation of the gloves to the can- 
didate is no longer practised as a ceremony in England 
or America, yet the use of them as a part of the proper 
professional clothing of a mason in the duties of the lodge, 
or in processions, is still retained, and in many well-reg- 
ulated lodges the members are almost as regularly clothed 
in their white gloves as in their white aprons. 

The symbolism of the gloves, it will be admitted, is, in 
fact, but a modification of that of the apron. They both 
signify the same thing ; both are allusive to a purification 
of life. " Who shall ascend," says the Psalmist, " into 
the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy 
place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart." 
The apron may be said to refer to the " pure heart," the 
gloves to the " clean hands." Both are significant of 
purification — of that purification which was always sym- 
bolized by the ablution which preceded the ancient initia- 
tions into the sacred Mysteries. But while our American 
and English masons have adhered only to the apron, and 



I38 THE SYMBOLISM OF THE GLOVES. 

rejected the gloves as a Masonic symbol, the latter appear 
to be far more important in symbolic science, because 
the allusions to pure or clean hands are abundant in all 
the ancient writers. 

" Hands," says Wemyss, in his " Clavis Symbolica," are 
the symbols of human actions ; pure hands are pure 
actions ; unjust hands are deeds of injustice." There are 
numerous references in sacred and profane writers to this 
symbolism. The washing of the hands has the outward 
sign of an internal purification. Hence the Psalmist says, 
" I will wash my hands in innocence, and I will encom- 
pass thine altar, Jehovah." 

In the ancient Mysteries the washing of the hands was 
always an introductory ceremony to the initiation, and, 
of course, it was used symbolically to indicate the neces- 
sity of purity from crime as a qualification of those who 
sought admission into the sacred rites ; and hence on a 
temple in the Island of Crete this inscription was placed : 
" Cleanse your feet, wash your hands, and then enter." 

Indeed, the washing of hands, as symbolic of purity, 
was among the ancients a peculiarly religious rite. No 
one dared to pray to the gods until he had cleansed his 
hands. Thus Homer makes Hector say, — 

" Xegal d'avlnroiuiv Ail XbI^eip al'doncc oivov 
"Aioficu." — Iliad, vi. 266. 

" I dread with unwashed hands to bring 
My incensed wine to Jove an offering." 

In a similar spirit of religion, y^neas, when leaving 
burning Troy, refuses to enter the temple of Ceres until 
his hands, polluted by recent strife, had been washed in 
the living stream. 



THE SYMBOLISM OF THE GLOVES. I39 

" Me bello e tanto digressum et csede recenti, 
Attrectare nefas, donee me flumine vivo 
Abluero." — ^«. ii. 718. 

" In me, now fresh from war and recent strife, 
"Tis impious the sacred things to touch 
Till in the living stream myself I bathe." 

The same practice prevailed among the Jews, and a 
striking instance of the symbolism is exhibited in that 
well-known action of Pilate, w 7 ho, when the Jews clamored 
for Jesus, that they might crucify him, appeared before 
the people, and, having taken water, washed his hands, 
saying at the same time, "I am innocent of the blood of 
this just man. See ye to it." In the Christian church 
of the middle ages, gloves were always worn by bishops 
or priests when in the performance of ecclesiastical func- 
tions. They were made of linen, and were white ; and 
Durandus, a celebrated ritualist, says that " by the white 
gloves were denoted chastity and purity, because the hands 
were thus kept clean and free from all impurity." 

There is no necessity to extend examples any further. 
There is no doubt that the use of the gloves in Masonry 
is a symbolic idea borrowed from the ancient and univer- 
sal language of symbolism, and was intended, like the 
apron, to denote the necessity of purity of life. 

We have thus traced the gloves and the apron to the 
same symbolic source. Let us see if we cannot also 
derive them from the same historic origin. 

The apron evidently owes its adoption in Freemasonry 
to the use of that necessary garment by the operative 
masons of the middle ages. It is one of the most posi- 
tive evidences — indeed we may say, absolutely, the most 
tangible evidence — of the derivation of our speculative 



140 THE SYMBOLISM OF THE GLOVES. 

science from an operative art. The builders, who asso- 
ciated in companies, who traversed Europe, and were 
engaged in the construction of palaces and cathedrals, 
have left to us, as their descendants, their name, their 
technical language, and that distinctive piece of clothing 
by which they protected their garments from the pollu- 
tions of their laborious employment. Did they also 
bequeath to us their gloves? This is a question which 
some modern discoveries will at last enable us to solve. 

M. Didron, in his " Annales Archeologiques," pre- 
sents us with an engraving, copied from the painted 
glass of a window in the cathedral of Chartres, in France. 
The painting was executed in the thirteenth century, and 
represents a number of operative masons at work. Three 
of them are adorned with laurel crowns. May not these 
be intended to represent the three officers of a lodge? 
All of the Masons wear gloves. M. Didron remarks that 
in the old documents which he has examined, mention 
is often made of gloves which are intended to be pre- 
sented to masons and stone-cutters. In a subsequent 
number of the " Annales," he gives the following three 
examples of this fact : — 

In the year 133 1, the Chatelan of Villaines, in Due- 
mois, bought a considerable quantity of gloves, to be 
given to the workmen, in order, as it is said, " to shield 
their hands from the stone and lime." 

In October, 1383, as he learns from a document of that 
period, three dozen pairs of gloves were bought and dis- 
tributed to the masons when they commenced the build- 
ings at the Chartreuse of Dijon. 

And, lastly, in i486 or 1487, twenty-two pair of gloves 
were given to the masons and stone-cutters who were 
engaged in work at the city of Amiens. 



THE SYMBOLISM OF THE GLOVES. I4I 

It is thus evident that the builders — the operative 
masons — of the middle ages wore gloves to protect their 
hands from the effects of their work. It is equally evi- 
dent that the speculative masons have received from their 
operative predecessors the gloves as well as the apron, 
both of which, being used by the latter for practical uses, 
have been, in the spirit of symbolism, appropriated by 
the former to " a more noble and glorious purpose." 




XXL 



THE RITE OF CIRCUMAMBULATION. 



>^WHE rite of circumambulation will supply us with 
/"J another ritualistic s}'mbol, in which we may 
\?J again trace the identity of the origin of Free- 
masonry with that of the religious and mystical cere- 
monies of the ancients. 

" Circumambulation" is the name given by sacred archae- 
ologists to that religious rite in the ancient initiations 
which consisted in a formal procession around the altar, 
or other holy and consecrated object. 

The prevalence of this rite among the ancients appears 
to have been universal, and it originally (as I shall have 
occasion to show) alluded to the apparent course of the 
sun in the firmament, which is from east to west by the 
way of the south. 

In ancient Greece, when the priests were engaged in 
the rites of sacrifice, they and the people always walked 
three times around the altar while chanting a sacred 
hymn or ode. Sometimes, while the people stood around 
the altar, the rite of circumambulation was performed by 
the priest alone, who, turning towards the right hand, 



THE RITE OF CIRCUMAMBULATION. 1 43 

went around it, and sprinkled it with meal and holy water. 
In making this circumambulation, it was considered abso- 
lutely necessary that the right side should always be next 
to the altar, and consequently, that the procession should 
move from the east to the south, then to the west, next to 
the north, and afterwards to the east again. It was in 
this way that the apparent revolution was represented. 

This ceremony the Greeks called moving ex ds$ia ev de^ia, 
from the right to the right, which was the direction of 
the motion, and the Romans applied to it the term dex- 
trovorsum, or dextrorsum, which signifies the same thing. 
Thus Plautus makes Palinurus, a character in his comedy 
of " Curculio," say, " If you would do reverence to the 
gods, you must turn to the right hand." Gronovius, in 
commenting on this passage of Plautus, sa} T s, " In wor- 
shipping and praying to the gods they were accustomed 
to turn to the right hand." 

A Irymn of Callimachus has been preserved, which is 
said to have been chanted by the priests of Apollo at 
Delos, while performing this ceremony of circumambula- 
tion, the substance of which is, " We imitate the example 
of the sun, and follow his benevolent course." 

It will be observed that this circumambulation around 
the altar was accompanied by the singing or chanting of 
a sacred ode. Of the three parts of the ode, the strophe. 
the antistrofihe, and the efiode, each was to be sung at a 
particular part of the procession. The analogy between 
this chanting of an ode by the ancients and the recitation 
of a passage of Scripture in the masonic circumambula- 
tion, will be at once apparent. 

Among the Romans, the ceremony of circumambula- 
tion was always used in the rites of sacrifice, of expiation 



144 THE RITE OF CIRCUMAMBULATION. 

or purification. Thus Virgil describes Coryriaeus as pu- 
rifying his companions, at the funeral of Misenus, by pass- 
ing three times around them while aspersing them with 
the lustral waters ; and to do so conveniently, it was neces- 
sary that he should have moved with his right hand 
towards them. 

" Idem ter socios pura circumtulit unda, 
Spargens rore levi et ramo felicis olivae." 

^E/z. vi. 229. 

" Thrice with pure water compassed he the crew, 
Sprinkling, with olive branch, the gentle dew." 

In fact, so common was it to unite the ceremony of 
circumambulation with that of expiation or purification, 
or, in other words, to make a circuitous procession in per- 
forming the latter rite, that the term lustrarc, whose 
primitive meaning is " to purify," came at last to be 
synonymous with circnire, to walk round anything ; and 
hence a purification and a circumambulation were often 
expressed by the same word. 

Among the Hindoos, the same rite of circumambulation 
has always been practised. As an instance, we may cite 
the ceremonies which are to be performed by a Brahmin 
upon first rising from bed in the morning, an accurate 
account of which has been given by Mr. Colebrooke in 
the "Asiatic Researches." The priest, having first adored 
the sun while directing his face to the east, then walks 
towards the west by the way of the south, saying, at the 
same time, "I follow the course of the sun," which he 
thus explains : "As the sun in his course moves round 
the world by the way of the south, so do I follow that 



THE RITE OF CIRCUMAM^ULATION. 145 

luminary, to' obtain the benefit arising from a journey 
round the earth by the way of the south." * 

Lastly, I may refer to the preservation of this rite 
among the Druids, whose " mystical dance " around the 
cairn, or sacred stones, was nothing more nor less than 
the rite of circumambulation. On these occasions the 
priest always made three circuits, from east to west, by 
the right hand, around the altar or cairn, accompanied by 
all the worshippers. And so sacred was the rite once 
considered, that we learn from Toland f that in the Scot- 
tish Isles, once a principal seat of the Druidical religion, 
the people " never come to the ancient sacrificing and fire- 
hallowing cairns, but they walk three times around them, 
from east to west, according to the course of the sun." 
This sanctified tour, or round by the south, he observes, 
is called Deiseal, as the contrary, or unhallowed one by 
the north, is called Tuapholl. And he further remarks, 
that this word Deiseal was derived " from Deas, the right 
(understanding hand) and soil, one of the ancient names 
of the sun, the right hand in this round being ever next 
the heap." 

I might pursue these researches still further, and trace 
this rite of circumambulation to other nations of antiquity ; 
but I conceive that enough has been said to show its 
universality, as well as the tenacity with which the essen- 
tial ceremony of performing the motion a mystical num- 
ber of times, and always by the right hand, from the east, 
through the south, to the west, was preserved. And I 

* See a paper " on the religious ceremonies of the Hindus," by 
H. T. Colebrooke, Esq.. in the Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. p. 357. 

t A Specimen of the Critical History of the Celtic Religion and 
Learning, Letter ii. § xvii. 

IO 



I46 THE RITE OF CIRCUMAMBULATION. 

think that this singular analogy to the same rite in Free- 
masonry must lead us to the legitimate conclusion, that 
the common source of all these rites is to be found in the 
identical origin of the Spurious Freemasonry or pagan 
mysteries, and the pure, Primitive Freemasonry, from 
which the former seceded only to be deteriorated. 

In reviewing what has been said on this subject, it will 
at once be perceived that the essence of the ancient rite 
consisted in making the circumambulation around the 
altar, from the east to the south, from the south to the 
west, thence to the north, and to the east again. 

Now, in this the masonic rite of circumambulation 
strictly agrees with the ancient one. 

But this circuit by the right hand, it is admitted, was 
done as a representation of the sun's motion/ It was a 
symbol of the sun's apparent course' around the earth. 

And so, then, here again we have in Masonry that old 
and often-repeated allusion to sun-worship, which has 
already been seen in the officers of a lodge, and in the 
point within a circle. And as the circumambulation is 
made around the lodge, just as the sun was supposed to 
move around the earth, we are brought back to the origi- 
nal symbolism with which we commenced — that the lodge 
is a symbol of the world. 




XXII. 



THE RITE OF INTRUSTING, AND THE SYMBOLISM 
OF LIGHT. 



/ *^lii»'HE rite of intrusting^ to which we are now to 
gs direct our attention, will supply us with many 
\^_y important and interesting symbols. 

There is an important period in the ceremony of 
masonic initiation, when the candidate is about to receive 
a full communication of the mysteries through which he 
has passed, and to which the trials and labors which he 
has undergone can only entitle him. This ceremony is 
technically called the " rite of intrtisting" because it is 
then that the aspirant begins to be intrusted with that for 
the possession of which he was seeking.* It is equivalent 
to what, in the ancient Mysteries, was called the " au- 
topsy,"! or t ne seeing of what only the initiated were per- 
mitted to behold. 



* Dr. Oliver, referring to the " twelve grand points in Masonry," 
which formed a part of the old English lectures, says, " When 
the candidate was intrusted, he represented Asher, for he was then 
presented with the glorious fruit of masonic knowledge, as Asher 
was represented by fatness and royal dainties." — Hist. Landm., 
vol. i. lect. xi. p. 313. 

- f From the Greek avioipla, signifying a seeing with one's oivn 
eyes. The candidate, who had previously been called a mystes, or a 

147 



I48 THE RITE OF INTRUSTING, AND 

This rite of intrusting is, of course, divided into sev- 
eral parts or periods ; for the aporreta, or secret things 
of Masonry, are not to be given at once, but in gradual 
progression. It begins, however, with the communica- 
tion of Light, which, although but a preparation for the 
development of the mysteries which are to follow, must 
be considered as one of the most important symbols in 
the whole science of masonic symbolism. So important, 
indeed, is it, and so much does it pervade with its influ- 
ence and its relations the whole masonic system, that 
Freemasonry itself anciently received, among other ap- 
pellations, that of Lux, or Light, to signify that it is to be 
regarded as that sublime doctrine of Divine Truth by 
which the path of him who has attained it is to be illumi- 
nated in his pilgrimage of life. 

The Hebrew cosmogonist commences his description 
of the creation by the declaration that " God said, Let 
there be light, and there was light" — a phrase which, in 
the more emphatic form that it has received in the original 
language of " Be light, and light was,"* is said to have 
won the praise, for its sublimity, of the greatest of Gre- 
cian critics. " The singularly emphatic summons," says 
a profound modern writer,f " by which light is called into 
existence, is probably owing to the preeminent utility and 
glory of that element, together with its mysterious nature, 
which made it seem as 

' The God of this new world,' 
and won for it the earliest adoration of mankind." 

blind man, from /uva), to sJiut the eyes, began at this point to 
change his title to that of an efiofit, or an eye-witness. 

* 11& TP1 Tlfcfc ^rp Yehi aur va yehi aur. 

t Robert William Mackay, Progress of the Intellect, vol. i. p. 93. 



THE SYMBOLISM OF LIGHT. 1 49 

Light was. in accordance with this old religious sen- 
timent, the great object of attainment in all the ancient 
religious Mysteries. It was there, as it is now, in Ma- 
sonry, made the symbol of ti'uth and knowledge. This 
was always its ancient symbolism, and we must never 
lose sight of this emblematic meaning, when we are 
considering the nature and signification of masonic light. 
When the candidate makes a demand for light, it is not 
merely for that material light which is to remove a phys- 
ical darkness ; that is only the outward form, which con- 
ceals the inward symbolism. He craves an intellectual 
illumination which w T ill dispel the darkness of mental 
and moral ignorance, and bring to his view, as an eye- 
witness, the sublime truths of religion, philosophy, and 
science, which it is the great design of Freemasonry to 
teach. 

In all the ancient systems this reverence for light, as 
the symbol of truth, was predominant. In the Mysteries 
of every nation, the candidate was made to pass, during 
his initiation, through scenes of utter darkness, and at 
length terminated his trials by an admission to the splen- 
didly-illuminated sacellum, or sanctuary, where he was 
said to have attained pure and perfect light, and where he 
received the necessary instructions which were to invest 
him with that knowledge of the divine truth which it had 
been the object of all his labors to gain, and the design 
of the institution, into which he had been initiated, to 
bestow. 

Light, therefore, became synonymous with truth and 
knowledge, and darkizess with falsehood and ignorance. 
We shall find this symbolism pervading not only the in- 
stitutions, but the very languages, of antiquity. 



150 THE RITE OF INTRUSTING, AND 

Thus, among the Hebrews, the word AUR, in the sin- 
gular, signified light, but in the plural, AURIM, it 
denoted the revelation of the divine will ; and the auri?n 
and thummim, literally the lights and truths, constituted 
a part of the breastplate whence the high priest ob- 
tained oracular responses to the questions which he pro- 
posed.* 

There is a peculiarity about the word " light," in the 
old Egyptian language, which is well worth considera- 
tion in this connection. Among the Egyptians, the hare 
was the hieroglyphic of eyes that are open; and it was 
adopted because that timid animal was supposed never 
to close his organs of vision, being always on the watch 
for his enemies. The hare was afterwards adopted by 
the priests as a symbol of the mental illumination or 
mystic light which was revealed to the neophytes, in 
the contemplation of divine truth, during the progress 
of their initiation ; and hence, according to Champollion, 
the hare was also the symbol of Osiris, their chief god ; 
thus showing the intimate connection which they believed 
to exist between the process of initiation into their sacred 
rites and the contemplation of the divine nature. But the 
Hebrew word for hare is ARNaBeT. Now, this is com- 
pounded of the two words AUR, light, and NaBaT, to 
behold,, and therefore the word which in the Egyptian 
denoted initiation, in the Hebrew signified to behold the 

* "And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the 
Urim and the Thummim." — Exod. xxviii. 30. — The Egyptian 
judges also wore breastplates, on which was represented the 
figure of Ra, the sun, and Thine, the goddess of Truth, represent- 
ing, says Gliddon, "i?<z, or the sun, in a double capacity— physi- 
cal and intellectual light; and Thine, in a double capacity — 
justice and truth." — Ancient Egypt, p. 33. 



- 



THE SYMBOLISM OF LIGHT. 151 

light. In two nations so intimately connected in history 
as the Hebrew and the Egyptian, such a coincidence 
could not have been accidental. It shows the preva- 
lence of the sentiment, at that period, that the communi- 
cation of light was the prominent design of the Mysteries 
— so prominent that the one was made the synonyme of 
the other.* 

The worship of light, either in its pure essence or in 
the forms of sun-worship* and fire-worship, because the 
sun and the fire were causes of light, was among the 
earliest and most universal superstitions of the world. 
Light was considered as the primordial source of all that 
was holy and intelligent ; and darkness, as its opposite, 
was viewed as but another name for evil and ignorance. 
Dr. Beard, in an article on this subject, in Kitto's Cyclo- 
paedia of Biblical Literature, attributes this view of the 
divine nature of light, which was entertained by the 
nations of the East, to the fact that, in that part of the 
world, light " has a clearness and brilliancy, is accompa- 
nied by an intensity of heat, and is followed in its influence 
by a largeness of good, of which the inhabitants of less 
genial climates have no conception. Light easily and 
naturally became, in consequence, with Orientals, a rep- 
resentative of the highest human good. All the more 
joyous emotions of the mind, all the pleasing sensations 
of the frame, all the happy hours of domestic intercourse, 

* We owe this interesting discovery to F. Portal, who has given 
it in his elaborate work on Egyptian symbols as compared with 
those of the Hebrews. To those who cannot consult the original 
work in French, I can safely recommend the excellent translation 
by my esteemed friend, Bro. John W. Simons, of New York, and 
which will be found in the thirtieth volume of the " Universal 
Masonic Library." 



152 THE RITE OF INTRUSTING, AND 

were described under imagery derived from light. The 
transition was natural — from earthly to heavenly, from 
corporeal to spiritual things ; and so light came to typify 
true religion and the felicity which it imparts. But as 
light not only came from God, but also makes man's way 
clear before him, so it was employed to signify moral 
truth, and preeminently that divine system of truth which 
is set forth in the Bible, from its earliest gleamings on- 
ward to the perfect day of the Great Sun of Righteous- 
ness." 

I am inclined to believe that in this passage the learned 
author has erred, not in the definition of the symbol, but 
in his deduction of its origin. Light became the object 
of religious veneration, not because of the brilliancy and 
clearness of a particular sky, nor the warmth and genial 
influence of a particular climate, — for the worship was 
universal, in Scandinavia as in India, — but because it 
was the natural and inevitable result of the worship of 
the sun, the chief deity of Sabianism — a faith which 
pervaded to an extraordinary extent the whole religious 
sentiment of antiquity.* 

Light was venerated because it was an emanation from 
the sun, and, in the materialism of the ancient faith, light 
and darkness were both personified as positive existences, 
the one being the enemy of the other. Two principles 
were thus supposed to reign over the world, antagonistic 
to each other, and each alternately presiding over the 
destinies of mankind. f 

* " The most early defection to Idolatry," says Bryant, " con- 
sisted in the adoration of the sun and the worship of demons, 
styled Baalim." — Analysts of Anc. Mythol. vol. iii. p. 431. 

t The remarks of Mr. Duncan on this subject are well worth 
perusal. " Light has always formed one of the primary objects 



THE SYMBOLISM OF LIGHT. 1 53 

The contests between the good and evil principle, sym- 
bolized by light and darkness, composed a very large 
part of the ancient mythology in all countries. 

Among the Egyptians, Osiris was light, or the sun ; 
and his arch-enemy, Typhon, who ultimately destroyed 
him, was the representative of darkness. 

Zoroaster, the father of the ancient Persian religion, 
taught the same doctrine, and called the principle of light, 
or good, Ormnzd, and the principle of darkness, or evil, 

of heathen adoration. The glorious spectacle of animated nature 
would lose all its interest if man were deprived of vision, and light 
extinguished; for that which is unseen and unknown becomes, for 
all practical purposes, as valueless as if it were non-existent. 
Light is a source of positive happiness; without it, man could 
barely exist; and since all religious opinion is based on the ideas 
of pleasure and pain, and the corresponding sensations of hope 
and fear, it is not to be wondered if the heathen reverenced light. 
Darkness, on the contrary, by replunging nature, as it were, into 
a state of nothingness, and depriving man of the pleasurable 
emotions conveyed through the organ of sight, was ever held in 
abhorrence, as a source of misery and fear. The two opposite con- 
ditions in which man thus found himself placed, occasioned bj^ 
the enjoyment or the banishment of light, induced him to imagine 
the existence of two antagonist principles in nature, to whose 
dominion he was alternately subject. Light multiplied his enjoy- 
ments, and darkness diminished them. The former, accordingly, 
became his friend, and the latter his enemy. The words ' light ' 
and 'good,' and 'darkness' and 'evil,' conveyed similar ideas, 
and became, in sacred language, synonymous terms. But as good 
and evil were not supposed to flow from one and the same source, 
no more than light and darkness were supposed to have a com- 
mon origin, two distinct and independent principles were estab- 
lished, totally different in their nature, of opposite characters, 
pursuing a conflicting line of action, and creating antagonistic 
effects. Such was the origin of this famous dogma, recognized by 
all the heathens, and incorporated with all the sacred fables, 
cosmogonies, and mysteries of antiquity." — The Religions of 
Profane Antiquity, p. 1S6. 



154 THE RITE OF INTRUSTING, AND 

Ahriman. The former, born of the purest light, and the 
latter, sprung from utter darkness, are, in this mythology, 
continually making war on each other. 

Manes, or Manichasus, the founder of the sect of Mani- 
chees, in the third century, taught that there are two 
principles from which all things proceed ; the one is a 
pure and subtile matter, called Light, and the other a 
gross and corrupt substance, called Darkness. Each of 
these is subject to the dominion of a superintending being, 
whose existence is from all eternity. The being who 
presides over the light is called God; he that rules over 
the darkness is called Hyle, or Demon. The ruler of 
the light is supremely happy, good, and benevolent, 
while the ruler over darkness is unhappy, evil, and 
malignant. 

Pythagoras also maintained this doctrine of two antag- 
onistic principles. He called the one, unity, light, the 
right hand, equality, stability, and a straight line ; the 
other he named binary, darkness, the left hand, inequality, 
instability, and a curved line. Of the colors, he attributed 
white to the good principle, and black to the evil one. 

The Cabalists gave a prominent place to light in 
their system of cosmogony. They taught that, before 
the creation of the world, all space was filled with what 
they called Aur e?z soph, or the Eternal Light, and that 
when the Divine Mind determined or willed the produc- 
tion of Nature, the Eternal Light withdrew to a central 
point, leaving around it an empty space, in which the 
process of creation went on by means of emanations from 
the central mass of light, It is unnecessary to enter into 
the Cabalistic account of creation ; it is sufficient here 
to remark that all was done through the mediate influence 



THE SYMBOLISM OF LIGHT. 1 55 

of the Aur en soph, or eternal light, which produces 
coarse matter, but one degree above nonentity, only when 
it becomes so attenuated as to be lost in darkness. 

The Brahminical doctrine was, that " light and dark- 
ness are esteemed the world's eternal ways; he who 
walketh in the former returneth not ; that is to say, he 
goeth to eternal bliss ; whilst he who walketh in the latter 
cometh back again upon earth," and is thus destined to 
pass through further transmigrations, until his soul is 
perfectly purified by light.* 

In all the ancient systems of initiation the candidate 
was shrouded in darkness, as a preparation for the recep- 
tion of light. The duration varied in the different rites. 
In the Celtic Mysteries of Druidism, the period in which 
the aspirant was immersed in darkness was nine days 
and nights ; among the Greeks, at Eleusis, it was three 
times as long ; and in the still severer rites of Mithras, in 
Persia, fifty days of darkness, solitude, and fasting were 
imposed upon the adventurous neophyte, who, by these 
excessive trials, was at length entitled to the full commu- 
nication of the light of knowledge. 

Thus it will be perceived that the religious sentiment 
of a good and an evil principle gave to darkness, in the 

* See the "Bhagvat Geeta," one of the religious books of Brah- 
minism. A writer in Blackwood, in an article on the " Castes 
and Greeds of India," vol. lxxxi. p. 316, thus accounts for the 
adoration of light by the early nations of the world : " Can we 
wonder at the worship of light by those early nations? Carry our 
thoughts back to their remote times, and our only wonder would 
be if they did not so adore it. The sun is life as well as light to 
all that is on the earth — as we of the present day know even 
better than they of old. Moving in dazzling radiance or brilliant- 
hued pageantry through the sky, scanning in calm royalty all that 
passes below, it seems the very god of this fair world, which lives 
and blooms but in his smile." 



156 THE RITE OF INTRUSTING, AND 

ancient symbolism, a place equally as prominent as that 
of light. 

The same religious sentiment of the ancients, modified, 
however, in its details, by our better knowledge of divine 
things, has supplied Freemasonry with a double symbol- 
ism — that of Light and Darkness. 

Darkness is the symbol of initiation. It is intended to 
remind the candidate of his ignorance, which Masonry is 
to enlighten ; of his evil nature, which Masonry is to puri- 
fy ; of the world, in whose obscurity he has been wander- 
ing, and from which Masonry is to rescue him. 

Light, on the other hand, is the symbol of the autopsy, 
the sight of the mysteries, the intrusting, the full fruition 
of masonic truth and knowledge. 

Initiation precedes the communication of knowledge in 
Masonry, as darkness preceded light in the olfi cosmogo- 
nies. Thus, in Genesis, we see that in the beginning " the 
world was without form, and void, and darkness was on 
the face of the deep." The Chaldean cosmogony taught 
that in the beginning " all was darkness and water." 
The Phoenicians supposed that " the beginning of all 
things was a wind of black air, and a chaos dark as 
Erebus." * 

* The Institutes of Me tin, which are the acknowledged code of 
the Brahmins, inform us that " the world was all darkness, un- 
discernible, undistinguishable altogether, as in a profound sleep, 
till the self-existent, invisible God, making it manifest with five 
elements and other glorious forms, perfectly dispelled the gloom." 
— Sir William Jones, On the Gods of Greece. Asiatic Researches, 
i. 244. 

Among the Rosicrucians, who have, by some, been improperly 
confounded with the Freemasons, the word lux was used to signify 
a knowledge of the philosopher's stone, or the great desideratum 
of a universal elixir and a universal menstruum. This was their 
truth. 



THE SYMBOLISM OF LIGHT. I$J 

But out of all this darkness sprang forth light, at the 
divine command, and the sublime phrase, u Let there be 
light," is repeated, in some substantially identical form, in 
all the ancient histories of creation. 

So, too, out of the mysterious darkness of Masonry 
comes the full blaze of masonic light. One must precede 
the other, as the evening preceded the morning. " So the 
evening and the morning were the first day." 

This thought is preserved in the great motto of the 
Order, " Lux e tenebrh" — Light out of darkness. It is 
equivalent to this other sentence : Truth out of initiation. 
Lux, or light, is truth ; tenebrce, or darkness, is initiation. 

It is a beautiful and instructive portion of our symbol- 
ism, this connection of darkness and light, and well de- 
serves a further investigation. 

" Genesis and the cosmogonies," says Portal, " mention 
the antagonism of light and darkness. The form of this 
fable varies according to each nation, but the foundation 
is everywhere the same. Under the symbol of the crea- 
tion of the world it presents the picture of regeneration 
and initiation." * 

Plutarch says that to die is to be initiated into the 
greater Mysteries ; and the Greek word teIevtuv, which 
signifies to die, means also to be initiated. But black, 
which is the symbolic color of darkness, is also the sy m- 
bol of death. And hence, again, darkness, like death, is 
the symbol of initiation. It was for this reason that all 
the ancient initiations were performed at night. The 
celebration of the Mysteries was always nocturnal. The 
same custom prevails in Freemasonry, and the explana- 
tion is the same. Death and the resurrection were taught 

* On Symbolic Colors, p. 23, Inraan's translation. 



158 THE RITE OF INTRUSTING. 

in the Mysteries, as they are in Freemasonry. The ini- 
tiation was the lesson of death. The full fruition or 
autopsy, the reception of light, was the lesson of regener- 
ation or resurrection. 

Light is, therefore, a fundamental symbol in Freema- 
sonry. It is, in fact, the first important symbol that is 
presented to the neophyte in his instructions, and contains 
within itself the very essence of Speculative Masonry, 
which is nothing more than the contemplation of intellec- 
tual. light or truth.* 

* Freemasonry having received the name of lux, or light, its dis- 
ciples have, very appropriately, been called " the Sons of Light." 
Thus Burns, in his celebrated Farewell : — 

" Oft have I met your social band, 

And spent the cheerful, festive night; 
Oft, honored with supreme command, 
Presided o'er the sons of light." 




XXIII. 



SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. 



81 



(~^£\ ; \ E come next, in a due order of precedence, to 
the consideration of the symbolism connected 
with an important ceremony in the ritual of 
the first degree of Masonry, which refers to the north-east 
corner of the lodge. In this ceremony the candidate be- 
comes the representative of a spiritual corner-stone. And 
hence, to thoroughly comprehend the true meaning of the 
emblematic ceremony, it is essential that we should inves- 
tigate the symbolism of the corner-stone. 

The corner-stone,* as the foundation on which the 
entire building is supposed to rest, is, of course, the most 
important stone in the whole edifice. It is, at least, so 
considered by operative masons. It is laid with impres- 
sive ceremonies ; the assistance of speculative masons is 
often, and always ought to be, invited, to give dignity to 

* Thus defined : " The stone which lies at the corner of two 
walls, and unites them ; the principal stone, and especially the 
stone which forms the corner of the foundation of an edifice." — 
Webster. 

159 



l6o SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. 

the occasion ; and the event is viewed by the workmen as 
an important era in the construction of the edifice.* 

In the rich imagery of Orientalism, the corner-stone is 
frequently referred to as the appropriate symbol of a chief 
or prince who is the defence and bulwark of his people, 
and more particularly in Scripture, as denoting that prom- 
ised Messiah who was to be the sure prop and support of 
all who should put their trust in his divine mission.f 

To the various properties that are necessary to consti- 
tute a true corner-stone, — its firmness and durability, Its 
perfect form, and its peculiar position as the connecting 

* Among the ancients the corner-stone of important edifices 
was laid with impressive ceremonies. These are well described by 
Tacitus, in his history of the rebuilding of the Capitol. After 
detailing the preliminary ceremonies which consisted in a pro- 
cession of vestals, who with chaplets of flowers encompassed the 
ground and consecrated it by libations of living water, he adds 
that, after solemn prayer, Helvidius, to whom the care of rebuild- 
ing the Capitol had been committed, " laid his hand upon the fillets 
that adorned the foundation stone, and also the cords by which 
it was to be drawn to its place. In that instant the magistrates, 
the priests, the senators, the Roman knights, and a number of 
citizens, all acting with one effort and general demonstrations of 
joy, laid hold of the ropes and dragged the ponderous load to its 
destined spot. They then threw in ingots of gold and silver, and 
other metals, which had never been melted in the furnace, but 
still retained, untouched by human art, their first formation in 
the bowels of the earth." — Tac. Hist., 1. iv. c. 53, Murphy's 
transl. 

f As, for instance, in Psalm cxviii. 22, "The stone which the 
builders refused is become the head-stone of the corner," which, 
Clarke says, " seems to have been originally spoken of David, who 
was at first rejected by the Jewish rulers, but was afterwards chosen 
by the Lord to be the great ruler of his people in Israel ; " and in 
Isaiah xxviii. 16, " Behold, I lay in Zion, for a foundation, a stone, 
a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation," which 
clearly refers to the promised Messiah. 



SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. l6l 

link between the walls, — we must attribute the important 
character that it has assumed in the language of symbol- 
ism. Freemasonry, which alone, of all existing institu- 
tions, has preserved this ancient and universal language, 
could not, as it may well be supposed, have neglected to 
adopt the corner-stone among its most cherished and im- 
pressive symbols ; and hence it has referred to it many of 
its most significant lessons of morality and truth. 

I have already alluded to that peculiar mode of masonic 
symbolism by which the speculative mason is supposed to 
be engaged in the construction of a spiritual temple, in 
imitation of, or, rather, in reference to, that material one 
which was erected by his operative predecessors at Jeru- 
salem. Let us again, for a few moments, direct our atten- 
tion to this important fact, and revert to the connection 
which originally existed between the operative and specu- 
lative divisions of Freemasonry. This is an essential 
introduction to any inquiry into the symbolism of the 
corner-stone. 

The difference between operative and speculative Ma- 
sonry is simply this — that while the former was engaged 
in the construction of a material temple, formed, it is true, 
of the most magnificent materials which the quarries 
of Palestine, the mountains of Lebanon, and the golden 
shores of Ophir could contribute, the latter occupies itself 
in the erection of a spiritual house, — a house not made 
with hands, — in which, for stones and cedar, and gold 
and precious stones, are substituted the virtues of the 
heart, the pure emotions of the soul, the warm affec- 
tions gushing forth from the hidden fountains of the spirit, 
so that the very presence of Jehovah, our Father and 
our God, shall be enshrined within us as his Shekinah 
II 



l62 SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. 

was in the hoi}' of holies of the material temple at Jeru- 
salem. 

The Speculative Mason, then, if he rightly comprehends 
the scope and design of his profession, is occupied, from 
his very first admission into the order until the close of 
his labors and his life, — and the true mason's labor ends 
only with his life, — in the construction, the adornment, 
and the completion of this spiritual temple of his body. 
He lays its foundation in a firm belief and an unshaken 
confidence in the wisdom, power, and goodness of God. 
This is his first step. Unless his trust is in God, and in 
him only, he can advance no further than the threshold of 
initiation. And then he prepares his materials with the 
gauge and gavel of Truth, raises the walls by the plumb- 
line of Rectitude, squares his work with the square of 
Virtue, connects the whole with the cement of Brotherly 
Love, and thus skilfully erects the living edifice of 
thoughts, and words, and deeds, in accordance with the 
designs laid down by the Master Architect of the uni- 
verse in the great Book of Revelation. 

The aspirant for masonic light — the Neophyte — on 
his first entrance within our sacred porch, prepares him- 
self for this consecrated labor of erecting within his own 
bosom a fit dwelling-place for the Divine Spirit, and thus 
commences the noble work by becoming himself the 
corner-stone on which this spiritual edifice is to be 
erected. 

Here, then, is the beginning of the symbolism of the 
corner-stone ; and it is singularly curious to observe how 
every portion of the archetype has been made to perform 
its appropriate duty in thoroughly carrying out the em- 
blematic allusions. 



SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. 1 63 

As, for example, this symbolic reference of the corner- 
stone of a material edifice to a mason, when, at his first 
initiation, he commences the intellectual task of erecting 
a spiritual temple in his heart, is beautifully sustained in 
the allusions to all the various parts and qualities which 
are to be found in a " well-formed, true and trusty " corner- 
stone.* Its form and substance are both seized by the 
comprehensive grasp of the symbolic science. 

Let us trace this symbolism in its minute details. And, 
first, as to the form of the corner-stone. 

The corner-stone of an edifice must be perfectly square 
on its surfaces, lest, by a violation of this true geometric 
figure, the walls to be erected upon it should deviate from 
the required line of perpendicularity which can alone 
give strength and proportion to the building. 

Perfectly square on its surfaces, it is, in its form and 
solid contents, a cube. Now, the square and the cube 
are both important and significant symbols. 

The square is an emblem of morality, or the strict per- 
formance of every duty.f Among the Greeks, who were 
a highly poetical and imaginative people, the square was 

* In the ritual " observed at laying the foundation-stone of public 
structures," it is said, " The principal architect then presents the 
working tools to the Grand Master, who applies the plumb, square, 
and level to the stone, in their proper positions, and pronounces it 
to be iv 'ell- formed, true, and trusty" — Webb's Monitor, p. 120. 

t "The square teaches us to regulate our conduct by the princi- 
ples of morality and virtue." — Ritual of the E. A. Degree. — The 
old York lectures define the square thus : " The square is the 
theory of universal duty, and consisteth in two right lines, form- 
ing an angle of perfect sincerity, or ninety degrees ; the longest 
side is the sum of the lengths of the several duties which we owe 
to all men. And every man should be agreeable to this square, 
when perfectly finished." 



164 SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. 

deemed a figure of perfection, and the &vr t o T£To<xyo>vog — 
" the square or cubical man," as the words may be trans- 
lated — was a term used to designate a man of unsullied 
integrity. Hence one of their most eminent metaphysi- 
cians * has said that " he who valiantly sustains the shocks 
of adverse fortune, demeaning himself uprightly, is truly 
good and of a square posture, without reproof; and he 
who would assume such a square posture should often 
subject himself to the perfectly square test of justice and 
integrity." 

The cube, in the language of symbolism, denotes truth.f 
Among the pagan mythologists, Mercury, or Hermes, was 
always represented by a cubical stone, because he was the 
type of truth, J and the same form was adopted by the Is- 
raelites in the construction of the tabernacle, which was 
to be the dwelling-place of divine truth. 

And, then, as to its material : This, too, is an essential 
element of all symbolism. Constructed of a material finer 
and more polished than that which constitutes the re- 
mainder of the edifice, often carved with appropriate de- 
vices and fitted for its distinguished purpose by the utmost 
skill of the sculptor's art, it becomes the symbol of that 

* Aristotle. 

t li The cube is a symbol of truth, of wisdom, and moral perfec- 
tion. The new Jerusalem, promised in the Apocalypse, is equal 
in length, breadth, and height. The Mystical city ought to be 
considered as a new church, where divine wisdom will reign." — 
Oliver's Landmarks, ii. p. 357. — And he might have added, 
where eternal truth will be present. 

X In the most primitive times, all the gods appear to have been 
represented by cubical blocks of stone ; and Pausanias says that 
he saw thirty of these stones in the city of Pharae, which rep- 
resented as many deities. The first of the kind, it is probable, 
were dedicated to Hermes, whence they derived their name of 
" Hermae." 



SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. 1 65 

beauty of holiness with which the Hebrew Psalmist has 
said that we are to worship Jehovah.* 

The ceremony, then, of the north-east corner of the 
lodge, since it derives all its typical value from this sym- 
bolism of the corner-stone, was undoubtedly intended ^o 
portray, in this consecrated language, the necessity of 
integrity and stability of conduct, of truthfulness and up- 
rightness of character, and of purity and holiness of life, 
which, just at that time and in that place, the candidate is 
most impressively charged to maintain. 

But there is also a symbolism about the position of the 
corner-stone, which is well worthy of attention. It is 
familiar to every one, — even to those who are without 
the pale of initiation, — that the custom of laying the 
corner-stones of public buildings has alwa}*s been per- 
formed by the masonic order with peculiar and impres- 
sive ceremonies, and that this stone is invariably deposited 
in the north-east corner of the foundation of the intended 
structure. Now, the question naturally suggests itself, 
Whence does this ancient and invariable usage derive its 
origin? Why may not the stone be deposited in any 
other corner or portion of the edifice, as convenience or 
necessity may dictate? The custom of placing the founda- 
tion-stone in the north-east corner must have been origi- 
nally adopted for some good and sufficient reason ; for 
we have a right to suppose that it was not an arbitrary 
selection.f Was it in reference to the ceremony which 

* " Give unto Jehovah the glory due unto His name ; worship 
Jehovah in the beauty of holiness." — Psalm xxix. 2. 

t It is at least a singular coincidence that in the Brahminical 
religion great respect was paid to the north-east point of the 
heavens. Thus it is said in the Institutes of Menu, " If he has 
any incurable disease, let him advance in a straight path towards 



1 66 SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. 

takes place in the lodge? Or is that in reference to the 
position of the material stone? No matter which has the 
precedence in point of time, the principle is the same. 
The position of the stone in the north-east corner of the 
building is altogether symbolic, and the symbolism exclu- 
sively alludes to certain doctrines which are taught in the* 
speculative science of Masonry. 

The interpretation, I conceive, is briefly this : Every 
Speculative Mason is familiar with the fact that the east, 
as the source of material light, is a symbol of his own 
order, which professes to contain within its bosom the 
pure light of truth. As, in the physical world, the morn- 
ing of each day is ushered into existence by the reddening 
dawn of the eastern sky, whence the rising sun dispenses 
his illuminating and prolific rays to every portion of the 
visible horizon, warming the whole earth with his em- 
brace of light, and giving new-born life and energy to 
flower and tree, and beast and man, who, at the magic 
touch, awake from the sleep of darkness, so in the 
moral world, when intellectual night was, in the earliest 
days, brooding over the world, it was from the ancient 
priesthood living in the east that those lessons of God, of 
nature, and of humanity first emanated, which, travelling 
westward, revealed to man his future destiny, and his de- 
pendence on a superior power. Thus every new and true 
doctrine, coming from these " wise men of the east," was, 
as it were, a new day arising, and dissipating the clouds 
of intellectual darkness and error. It was a universal 
opinion among the ancients that the first learning came 

the invincible north-east $oint, feeding on water and air till his 
mortal frame totally decay, and his soul become united with the 
Supreme." 



SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. 1 67 

from the east; and the often-quoted line of Bishop Berke- 
ley, that — 

" Westward the course of empire takes its way " — 

is but the modern utterance of an ancient thought, for it 
was alWays believed that the empire of truth and knowl- 
edge was advancing from the east to the west. 

Again : the north, as the point in the horizon which is 
most remote from the vivifying rays of the sun when at 
his meridian height, has, with equal metaphorical pro- 
priety, been called the place of darkness, and is, there- 
fore, symbolic of the profane worl3, which has not yet 
been penetrated and illumined by the intellectual rays of 
masonic light. All history concurs in recording the fact 
that, in the early ages of the world, its northern portion 
was enveloped in the most profound moral and mental 
darkness. It was from the remotest regions of Northern 
Europe that those barbarian hordes " came down like the 
wolf on the fold," and devastated the fair plains of the 
south, bringing with them a dark curtain of ignorance, 
beneath whose heavy folds the nations of the world lay 
for centuries overwhelmed. The extreme north has ever 
been, physically and intellectually, cold, and dark, and 
dreary. Hence, in Masonry, the north has ever been 
esteemed the place of darkness ; and, in obedience to this 
principle, no symbolic light is allowed to illumine the 
northern part of the lodge. 

The east, then, is, in Masonry, the symbol of the order, 
and the north the symbol of the profane world. 

Now, the spiritual corner-stone is deposited in the 
north-east corner of the lodge, because it is symbolic of 
the position of the neophyte, or candidate, who represents 



1 68 SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. 

it in his relation to the order and to the world. From 
the profane world he has just emerged. Some of its 
imperfections are still upon him ; some of its darkness is 
still about him ; he as yet belongs in part to the north. 
But he is striving for light and truth ; the pathway upon 
which he has entered is directed towards the east. His 
allegiance, if I may use the word, is divided. He is not 
altogether a profane, nor altogether a mason. If he were 
wholly in the world, the north would be the place to find 
him — the north, which is the reign of darkness. If he 
were wholly in the order, — a Master Mason, — the east 
would have received him — the east, which is the place 
of light. But he is neither ; he is an Apprentice, with 
some of the ignorance of the world cleaving to him, and 
some of the light of the order beaming upon him. And 
hence this divided allegiance — this double character — 
this mingling of the departing darkness of the north with 
the approaching brightness of the ea^st — is well expressed, 
in our symbolism, by the appropriate position of the 
spiritual corner-stone in the north-east corner of the lodge. 
One surface of the stone faces the north, and the other 
surface faces the east. It is neither wholly in the one 
part nor wholly in the other, and in so far it is a symbol 
of initiation not fully developed — that which is incom- 
plete and imperfect, and is, therefore, fitly represented by 
the recipient of the first degree, at the very moment of his 
initiation.* 

* This symbolism of the double position of the corner-stone has 
not escaped the attention of the religious symbologists. Etsius, 
an early commentator, in 1682, referring to the passage in Ephe- 
sians ii. 20, says, "That is called the corner-stone, or chief 
corner-stone, which is placed in the extreme angle of a founda- 
tion, conjoining and holding together two walls of the pile, meet- 



SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. 169 

But the strength and durability of the corner-stone are 
also eminently suggestive of symbolic ideas. To fulfil 
its design as the foundation and support of the massive 
building whose erection it precedes, it should be con- 
structed of a material which may outlast all other parts 
of the edifice, so that when that " eternal ocean whose 
waves are years" shall have ingulfed all who were 
present at the construction of the building in the vast 
vortex of its ever-flowing current ; and when generation 
after generation shall have passed away, and the crum- 
bling stones of the ruined edifice shall begin to attest the 
power of time and the evanescent nature of all human 
undertakings, the corner-stone will still remain to tell, by 
its inscriptions, and its form, and its beauty, to every 
passer-by, that there once existed in that, perhaps then 
desolate, spot, a building consecrated to some noble or 
some sacred purpose by the zeal and liberality of men 
who now no longer Hve. 

So, too, do this permanence and durability of the 
corner-stone, in contrast with the decay and ruin of the 
building in whose foundations it was placed, remind the 

ing from different quarters. And the apostle not only would be 
understood by this metaphor that Christ is the principal founda- 
tion of the whole church, but also that in him, as in a corner- 
stone, the two peoples, Jews and Gentiles, are conjoined, and so 
conjoined as to rise together into one edifice, and become one 
church." And Julius Firmicius, who wrote in the sixteenth 
century, says that Christ is called the corner-stone, because, being 
placed in the angle of the two walls, which are the Old and the 
New Testament, he collects the nations into one fold. " Lapis 
sanctus, i. e. Christus, aut fidei fundamenta sustentat aut in 
angulo positus duorum parietum membra sequata moderatione 
conjungit, i. e., Veteris et Novi Testamenti in unum colligit 
gentes." — De Err ore prof an. Religionum, chap. xxi. 



170 SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. 

mason that when this earthly house of his tabernacle shall 
have passed away, he has within him a sure foundation 
of eternal life — a corner-stone of immortality — an ema- 
nation from that Divine Spirit which pervades all nature, 
and which, therefore, must survive the tomb, and rise, 
triumphant and eternal, above the decaying dust of death 
and the grave.* 

It is in this way that the student of masonic symbolism 
is reminded by the corner-stone — by its form, its posi- 
tion, and its permanence — of significant doctrines of 
duty, and virtue, and religious truth, which it is the great 
object of Masonry to teach. 

But I have said that the material corrfer-stone is depos- 
ited in its appropriate place with solemn rites and cere- 
monies, for which the order has established a peculiar 
ritual. These, too, have a beautiful and significant sym- 
bolism, the investigation of which will next attract our 
attention. 

And here it may be observed, in passing, that the 
accompaniment of such an act of consecration to a par- 
ticular purpose, with solemn rites and ceremonies, claims 
our respect, from the prestige that it has of all antiquity. 

* This permanence of position was also attributed to those 
cubical stones among the Romans which represented the statues 
of the god Terminus. They could never lawfully be removed from 
the spot which they occupied. Hence, when Tarquin was about 
to build the temple of Jupiter, on the Capitoline Hill, all the 
shrines and statues of the other gods were removed from the emi- 
nence to make way for the new edifice, except that of Terminus, 
represented by a stone. This remained untouched, and was 
enclosed within the temple, to show, says Dudley, " that the stone, 
having been a personification of the God Supreme, could not be 
reasonably required to yield to Jupiter himself in dignity and 
power." — Dudley's Naology, p. 145. 



SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. 171 

A learned writer on symbolism makes, on this subject, 
the following judicious remarks, which may be quoted 
as a sufficient defence of our masonic ceremonies : — 

" It has been an opinion, entertained in all past ages, 
that by the performance of certain acts, things, places, 
and persons acquire a character which they would not 
have had without such performances. The reason is 
plain : certain acts signify firmness of purpose, which, 
by consigning the object to the intended use, gives it, in 
the public opinion, an accordant character. This is most 
especially true of things, places, and persons connected 
with religion and religious worship. After the perform- 
ance of certain acts or rites, they are held to be altogether 
different from what they were before ; they acquire a 
sacred character, and in some instances a character abso- 
lutely divine. Such are the effects imagined to be pro- 
duced by religious dedication."'* 

The stone, therefore, thus properly constructed, is, 
when it is to be deposited by the constituted authorities 
of our order, carefully examined with the necessary im- 
plements of operative masonry, — the square, the level, 
and the plumb, — - and declared to be " well-formed, true, 
and trusty." This is not a vain nor unmeaning ceremony. 
It teaches the mason that his virtues are to be tested by 
temptation and trial, by suffering and adversity, before 
they can be pronounced by the Master Builder of souls 
to be materials worthy of the spiritual building of eternal 
life, fitted " as living stones, for that house not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens." But if he be faithful, and 
withstand these trials, — if he shall come forth from these 

* Dudley's Naology, p. 476. 



172 SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. 

temptations and sufferings like pure gold from the refi- 
ner's fire, — then, indeed, shall he be deemed "well-formed, 
true, and trusty," and worthy to offer " unto the Lord an 
offering in righteousness." 

In the ceremony of depositing the corner-stone, the 
sacred elements of masonic consecration are then pro- 
duced, and the stone is solemnly set apart by pouring 
corn, wine, and oil upon its surface. Each of these ele- 
ments has a beautiful significance in our symbolism. 

Collectively, they allude to the Corn of Nourishment, 
the Wine of Refreshment, and the Oil of Joy, which are 
the promised rewards of a faithful and diligent perform- 
ance of duty, and often specifically refer to the anticipated 
success of the undertaking whose incipiency they have 
consecrated. They are, in fact, types and symbols of all 
those abundant gifts of Divine Providence for which we 
are daily called upon to make an offering of our thanks, 
and which are enumerated by King David, in his cata- 
logue of blessings, as " wine that maketh glad the heart 
of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which 
strengthened man's heart." 

" Wherefore, my brethren," says Harris, " do you carry 
corn, wine, a?id oil in your processions, but to remind you 
that in the pilgrimage of human life you are to impart a 
portion of your bread to feed the hungry, to send a cup 
of your wine to cheer the sorrowful, and to pour the heal- 
ing oil of your consolation into the wounds which sickness 
hath made in the bodies, or affliction rent in the hearts, of 
your fellow-travellers ? " * 

But, individually, each of these elements of consecration 

* Masonic Discourses, Dis. iv. p. 81. 



« 



SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. 1 73 

has also an appropriate significance, which is well worth 
investigation. 

Corn, in the language of Scripture, is an emblem of 
the resurrection, and St. Paul, in that eloquent discourse 
which is so familiar to all, as a beautiful argument for the 
great Christian doctrine of a future life, adduces the seed 
of grain, which, being sown, first dieth, and then quick- 
eneth, as the appropriate type of that corruptible which 
must put on incorruption, and of that mortal which must 
assume immortality. But, in Masonry, the sprig of acacia, 
for reasons purely masonic, has been always adopted as 
the symbol of immortality, and the ear of corn is appro- 
priated as the symbol of plenty. This is in accordance 
with the Hebrew derivation of the word, as well as with 
the usage of all ancient nations. The word dagan, pi, 
which signifies corn, is derived from the verb dagah, 
na", to increase, to multiply, and in all the ancient reli- 
gions the horn or vase, filled with fruits and with grain, 
was the recognized symbol of plenty. Hence, as an ele- 
ment of consecration, corn is intended to remind us of 
those temporal blessings of life and health, and comforta- 
ble support, which we derive from the Giver of all good, 
and to merit which we should strive, with " clean hands 
and a pure heart," to erect on the corner-stone of our 
initiation a spiritual temple, which shall be adorned with 
the "beauty of holiness." 

Wine is a symbol of that inward and abiding comfort 
with which the heart of the man who faithfully performs 
his part on the great stage of life is to be refreshed ; and 
as, in the figurative language of the East, Jacob propheti- 
cally promises to Judah, as his reward, that he shall wash 
his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of the 



1 74 SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. 

grape, it seems intended, morally, to remind us of those 
immortal refreshments which, when the labors of this 
earthly lodge are forever closed, we shall receive in the 
celestial lodge above, where the G. A. O. T. U. forever 
presides. 

Oil is a symbol of prosperity, and happiness, and joy. 
The custom of anointing every thing or person destined 
for a sacred purpose is of venerable antiquity.* The 
statues of the heathen deities, as well as the altars on 
which the sacrifices were offered to them, and the priests 
who presided over the sacred rites, were always anointed 
with perfumed ointment, as a consecration of them to the 
objects of religious worship. 

When Jacob set up the stone on which he had slept in 
his journey to Padan-aram, and where he was blessed 
with the vision of ascending and descending angels, he 
anointed it with oil, and thus consecrated it as an altar 
to God. Such an inunction was, in ancient times, as it 
still continues to be in many modern countries and con- 
temporary religions, a symbol of the setting apart of the 
thing or person so anointed and consecrated to a holy 
purpose. 

* " The act of consecration chiefly consisted in the unction, 
which was a ceremony derived from the most primitive antiquity. 
The sacred tabernacle, with all the vessels and utensils, as also the 
altar and the priests themselves, were consecrated in this manner 
by Moses, at the divine command. It is well known that the 
Jewish kings and prophets were admitted to their several offices by 
unction. The patriarch Jacob, by the same right, consecrated the 
altars which he made use of; in doing which it is more probable 
that he followed the tradition of his forefathers, than that he was 
the author of this custom. The same, or something like it, was 
also continued down to the times of Christianity." — Potter's 
Archceologla Grceca, b. ii. p. 176. 



SYMBOLISM OF THE CORNER-STONE. 1 75 

Hence, then, we are reminded by this last impressive 
ceremony, that the cultivation of virtue, the practice of 
duty, the resistance of temptation, the submission to 
suffering, the devotion to truth, the maintenance of 
integrity, and all those other graces by which we strive 
to fit our bodies, as living stones, for the spiritual build- 
ing of eternal life, must, after all, to make the object 
effectual and the labor successful, be consecrated by a 
holy obedience to God's will and a firm reliance on God's 
providence, which alone constitute the chief corner-stone 
and sure foundation, on which any man can build with 
the reasonable hope of a prosperous issue to his work. 

It may be noticed, in concluding this topic, that the 
corner-stone seems to be peculiarly a Jewish symbol. I 
can find no reference to it in any of the ancient pagan 
rites, and the EBEN PINAH, the corner-stone, which 
is so frequently mentioned in Scripture as the emblem of 
an important personage, and most usually, in the Old 
Testament, of the expected Messiah, appears, in its use 
in Masonry, to have had, unlike almost every other sym- 
bol of the order, an exclusively temple origin. 




XXIV. 

THE INEFFABLE NAME. 

/^J NOTHER important symbol is the Ineffable 
"21 Name, with which the series of ritualistic sym- 
^^\/ bols will be concluded. 

x_L/ The Tetragrammaton,* or Ineffable Word, — 

the Incommunicable Name, — is a symbol — for rightly 
considered it is nothing more than a symbol — that has 
more than any other (except, perhaps, the symbols con- 
nected with sun-worship), pervaded the rites of antiquity. 
I know, indeed, of no system of ancient initiation in which 
it has not some prominent form and place. 

But as it was, perhaps, the earliest symbol which was 
corrupted by the spurious Freemasonry of the pagans, in 



* From the Greek TSTQ&g, four, and yQ&jiif/a, letter, because it is 
composed of four Hebrew letters. Brande thus defines it : 
"Among several ancient nations, the name of the mystic num- 
ber four, which was often symbolized to represent the Deity, 
whose name was expressed by four letters." But this definition is 
incorrect. The tetragrammaton is not the name of the number 
four, but the word which expresses the name of God in four let- 
ters, and is always applied to the Hebrew word only. 

176 



THE INEFFABLE NAME. 1 77 

their secession from the primitive system of the patriarchs 
and ancient priesthood, it will be most expedient for the 
thorough discussion of the subject which is proposed in 
the present paper, that we should begin the investigation 
with an inquiry into the nature of the symbol among the 
Israelites. 

That name of God, which we, at a venture, pronounce 
Jehovah, — although whether this is, or is not, the true 
pronunciation can now never be authoritatively settled, — 
was ever held by the Jews in the most profound venera- 
tion. They derived its origin from the immediate inspira- 
tion of the Almighty, who communicated it to Moses as 
his especial appellation, to be used only by his chosen 
people ; and this communication was made at the Burning 
Bush, when he said to him, ''Thus shalt thou say unto 
the children of Israel : Jehovah, the God of your fathers, 
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of 
Jacob, hath sent me unto you : this [Jehovah] is my 
name forever, and this is my memorial unto all genera- 
tions." * And at a subsequent period he still more em- 
phatically declared this to be his peculiar name : " I am 
JeJiovah; and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and 
unto Jacob, by the name of El Shaddai ; but by my name 
yehovah was I not known unto them." f 

It will be perceived that I have not here followed pre- 
cisely the somewhat unsatisfactory version of King James's 
Bible, which, by translating or anglicizing one name, and 
not the other, leaves the whole passage less intelligible 

* Exod. iii. 15. In our common version of the Bible, the word 
"Lord" is substituted for "Jehovah," whence the true import of 
the original is lost. 

f Exod. vi. 2, 3. 

12 



178 THE INEFFABLE NAME. 

and impressive than it should be. I have retained the 
original Hebrew for both names. El Shaddai, " the 
Almighty One," was the name by which he had been 
heretofore known to the preceding patriarchs ; in its 
meaning it was analogous to Elohim, who is described 
in the first chapter of Genesis as creating the world. 
But his name of Jehovah was now for the first time to 
be communicated to his people. 

Ushered to their notice with all the solemnity and re- 
ligious consecration of these scenes and events, this name 
of God became invested among the Israelites with the 
profoundest veneration and awe. To add to this mysti- 
cism, the Cabalists, by the change of a single letter, read 
the passage, " This is my name forever," or, as it is in the 
original, Zeh shemi Volant, x&sh ""fcEJ MTj as if written 
Zeh shcmi Valam, E;tfb ^fcO HTj that is to say, " This is 
my name to be concealed." 

This interpretation, although founded on a blunder, and 
in all probability an intentional one, soon became a pre- 
cept, and has been strictly obeyed to this day.* The 

* " The Jews have many superstitious stories and opinions rela- 
tive to this name, which, because they were forbidden to mention 
in vain, they would not mention at all. They substituted Ado?iai, 
&c, in its room, whenever it occurred to them in reading or 
speaking, or else simply and emphatically styled it &1L"!1> the Name. 
Some of them attributed to a certain repetition of this name the 
virtue of a charm, and others have had the boldness to assert that 
our blessed Savior wrought all his miracles (for they do not deny 
them to be such) by that mystical use of this venerable name. See 
the Toldoth Jeschu, an infamously scurrilous life of Jesus, written 
by a Jew not later than the thirteenth century. On p. 7, edition 
of Wagenseilius, 1681, is a succinct detail of the manner in which 
our Savior is said to have entered the temple and obtained posses- 
sion of the Holy Name. Leusden says that he had offered to give 
a sum of money to a very poor Jew at Amsterdam, if he would 



THE INEFFABLE NAME. 1 79 

word yehovaJi is never pronounced by a pious Jew, who, 
whenever he meets with it in Scripture, substitutes for it 
the word Adonai or Lord — a practice which has been fol- 
lowed by the translators of the common English version 
of the Bible with almost Jewish scrupulosity, the word 
"Jehovah " in the original being invariably translated by 
the word "Lord."* The pronunciation of the word, 
being thus abandoned, became ultimately lost, as, by the 
peculiar construction of the Hebrew language, which is 
entirely without vowels, the letters, being all consonants, 
can give no possible indication, to one who has not heard 
it before, of the true pronunciation of any given word. 

To make this subject plainer to the reader who is un- 
acquainted with the Hebrew, I will venture to furnish an 
explanation which will, perhaps, be intelligible. 

The Hebrew alphabet consists entirely of consonants, 
the vowel sounds having always been inserted orally, and 
never marked in writing until the " vowel points," as they 
are called, were invented by the Masorites, some six cen- 
turies after the Christian era. As the vowel sounds were 
originally supplied by the reader, while reading, from a 

only once deliberately pronounce the name Jehovah ; but he re- 
fused it by saying that he did not dare." — Horce Solitaries, vol. i. 
p. 3. — "A Brahmin will not pronounce the name of the Almighty, 
without drawing down his sleeve and placing it on his mouth with 
fear and trembling." — Murray, Truth of Revelation, p. 321. 

* The same scrupulous avoidance of a strict translation has been 
pursued in other versions. For Jehovah, the Septuagint sub- 
stitutes " KvQtog" the Vulgate " Dominus," and the German " der 
Herr," all equivalent to "the Lord." The French version uses the 
title " l'Eternel." But, with a better comprehension of the value 
of the word, Lowth in his " Isaiah," the Swedenborgian version of 
the Psalms, and some other recent versions, have restored the 
original name. 



l8o THE INEFFABLE NAME. 

knowledge which he had previously received, by means 
of oral instruction, of the proper pronunciation of the 
word, he was necessarily unable to pronounce any word 
which had never before been uttered in his presence. As 
we know that Dr. is to be pronounced Doctor, and Mr. 
Mister, because we have always heard those peculiar 
combinations of letters thus enunciated, and not because 
the letters themselves give any such sound ; so the Jew 
knew from instruction and constant practice, and not 
from the power of the letters, how the consonants in the 
different words in daily use were to be vocalized. But as 
the four letters which compose the word yehovah, as we 
now call it, were never pronounced in his presence, but 
were made to represent another word, Ado7tai, which was 
substituted for it, and as the combination of these four 
consonants would give no more indication for any sort of 
enunciation than the combinations Dr. or Mr. give in our 
language, the Jew, being ignorant of what vocal sounds 
were to be supplied, was unable to pronounce the word, 
so that its true pronunciation was in time lost to the masses 
of the people. 

There was one person, how r ever, who, it is said, was in 
possession of the proper sound of the letters and the true 
pronunciation of the word. This was the high priest, 
who, receiving it from his predecessor, preserved the 
recollection of the sound by pronouncing it three times, 
once a year, on the day of the atonement, when he en- 
tered the holy of holies of the tabernacle or the temple. 

If the traditions of Masonry on this subject are correct, 
the kings, after the establishment of the monarchy, must 
have participated in this privilege ; for Solomon is said to 
have been in possession of the word, and to, have com- 



THE INEFFABLE NAME. l8l 

municated it to his two colleagues at the building of the 
temple* 

, This is the word which, from the number of its letters, 
\vas called the " tetragrammaton," or four-lettered name, 
and, from its sacred inviolability, the " ineffable " or unut- 
terable name. 

The Cabalists and Talmudists have enveloped it in a 
host of mystical superstitions, most of which are as absurd 
as they are incredible, but all of them tending to show the 
great veneration that has always been paid to it.* Thus 
they say that it is possessed of unlimited powers, and that 
he who pronounces it shakes heaven and earth, and in- 
spires the very angels with terror and astonishment. 

The Rabbins called it " shem hamphorash," that is to 
say, " the name that is declaratory," and they say that 
David found it engraved on a stone while digging into 
the earth. 

From the sacredness with which the name was vener- 
ated, it was seldom, if ever, written in full, and, conse- 
quently, a great many symbols, or hieroglyphics, w r ere 
invented to express it. One of these was the letter i, or 
Yodj equivalent nearly to the English I, or J, or Y, which 
was the initial of the word, and it was often in- 
scribed within an equilateral triangle, thus : 
the triangle itself being a symbol of Deity. 

* In the Talmudical treatise, Majan HachocJiima, quoted by 
Stephelin (Rabbinical Literature, i. p. 131), we are informed that 
rightly to understand the shem hamphorash is "a key to the un- 
locking of all mysteries. " There," says the treatise, " shalt thou 
understand the words of men, the words of cattle, the singing of 
birds, the language of beasts, the barking of dogs, the language of 
devils, the language of ministering angels, the language of date- 
trees, the motion of the sea, the unity of hearts, and the murmur- 
ing of the tongue — nay, even the thoughts of the reins." 




1 82 THE INEFFABLE NAME. 

This symbol of the name of God is peculiarly worthy 
of our attention, since not only is the triangle to be found 
in many of the ancient religions occupying the same posi- 
tion, but the whole symbol itself is undoubtedly the origin 
of that hieroglyphic exhibited in the second degree of 
Masonry, where, the explanation of the symbolism being 
the same, the form of it, as far as it respects the letter, has 
only been anglicized by modern innovators. In my own 
opinion, the letter G, which is used in the Fellow Craft's 
degree, should never have been permitted to intrude into 
Masonry ; it presents an instance of absurd anachronism, 
which would never have occurred if the original Hebrew 
symbol had been retained. But being there now, without 
the possibility of removal, we have only to remember that 
it is in fact but the symbol of a symbol.* 

Widely spread, as I have already said, was this rever- 
ence for the name of God ; and, consequently, its symbol- 
ism, in some peculiar form, is to be found in all the ancient 
rites. 

Thus the Ineffable Name itself, of which we have been 
discoursing, is said to have been preserved in its true pro- 
nunciation by the Essenes, who, in their secret rites, com- 
municated it to each other only in a whisper, and in 
such form, that while its component parts were known, 
they were so separated as to make the whole word a mys- 
tery. 

Among the Egyptians, whose connection with the He- 
brews was more immediate than that of any other people, 
and where, consequently, there was a greater similarity 
of rites, the same sacred name is said to have been used 

* The gamma, r, or Greek letter G, is said to have been sacred 
among the Pythagoreans as the initial of rebi t ueigla or Geometry. 



THE INEFFABLE NAME. 1 83 

as a password, for the purpose of gaining admission to 
their Mysteries. 

In the Brahminic Mysteries of Hindostan the ceremony 
of initiation was terminated by intrusting the aspirant 
with the sacred, triliteral name, which was aum, the 
three letters of which were symbolic of the creative, pre- 
servative, and destructive principles of the Supreme Deity, 
personified in the three manifestations of Bramah, Siva, 
and Vishnu. This word was forbidden to be pronounced 
aloud. It was to be the subject of silent meditation to the 
pious Hindoo. 

In the rites of Persia an ineffable name was also com- 
municated to the candidate after his initiation.* Mithras, 
the principal divinity in these rites, who took the place 
of the Hebrew Jehovah, and represented the sun, had 
this peculiarity in his name — that the numeral value of 
the letters of which it was composed amounted to pre- 
cisely 365, the number of days which constitute a revolu- 
tion of the earth around the sun, or, as they then supposed, 
of the sun around the earth. 

In the Mysteries introduced by Pythagoras into Greece 
we again find the ineffable name of the Hebrews, obtained 
doubtless by the Samian Sage during his visit to Baby- 
lon.f The symbol adopted by him to express it was, 

* Vide Oliver, Hist. Init. p. 68, note. 

f Jamblichus says that Pythagoras passed over from Miletus to 
Sidon, thinking that he could thence go more easily into Egypt, 
and that while there he caused himself to be initiated into all the 
mysteries of Byblos and Tyre, and those which were practised in 
many parts of Syria, not because he was under the influence of any 
superstitious motives, but from the fear that if he were not to avail 
himself of these opportunities, he might neglect to acquire some 
knowledge in those rites which was worthy of observation. But 



184 THE INEFFABLE NAME. 

however, somewhat different, being ten points distributed 
in the form of a triangle, each side containing four points, 
as in the annexed figure. 

• The apex of the triangle was consequently 

• • a single point then followed below two 

• • • others, then three ; and lastly, the base con- 
• • • • sisted of four. These points were, by the 
number in each rank, intended, according to the Py- 
thagorean system, to denote respectively the monad, or 
active principle of nature ; the duad, or passive principle ; 
the triad, or world emanating from their union ; and the 
quaterniad, or intellectual science ; the whole number 
of points amounting to ten, the symbol of perfection and 
consummation. This figure was called by Pythagoras 
the tetractys — a word equivalent in signification to the 
tetragrammaton ; and it was deemed so sacred that on it 
the oath of secrecy and fidelity was administered to the 
aspirants in the Pythagorean rites.* 

Among the Scandinavians, as among the Jewish 
Cabalists, the Supreme God who was made known in 
their mysteries had twelve names, of which the princi- 
pal and most sacred one was Alfader, the Universal 
Father. 

as these mysteries were originally received by the Phoenicians from 
Egypt, he passed over into that country, where he remained 
twenty-two years, occupying himself in the study of geometry, 
astronomy, and all the initiations of the gods (nucrag Ot(bv TsXerdg), 
until he was carried a captive into Babylon by the soldiers of 
Cambyses, and that twelve years afterwards he returned to Samos 
at the age of sixty years. — Vit. Pythag. cap. iii., iv. 

* " The sacred words were intrusted to him, of which the In- 
effable Tetractys, or name of God, was the chief." — Oliver, Hist. 
I nit. p. 109. 



THE INEFFABLE NAME. 1 85 

Among the Druids, the sacred name of God was Hu * 
— a name which, although it is supposed, by Bryant, to 
have been intended by them for Noah, will be recognized 
as one of the modifications of the Hebrew tetragrammaton. 
It is, in fact, the masculine pronoun in Hebrew, and may 
be considered as the symbolization of the male or gener- 
ative principle in nature — a sort of modification of the 
system of Phallic worship. 

This sacred name among the Druids reminds me of 
what is the latest, and undoubtedly the most philosophi- 
cal, speculation on the true meaning, as well as pronun- 
ciation, of the ineffable tetragrammaton. It is from the 
ingenious mind of the celebrated Lanci ; and I have 
already, in* another work, given it to the public as I 
received it from his pupil, and my friend, Mr. Gliddon, 
the distinguished archaeologist. But the results are too 
curious to be omitted whenever the tetragrammaton is 
discussed. 

Elsewhere I have very fully alluded to the prevailing 
sentiment among the ancients, that the Supreme Deity 
was bisexual, or hermaphrodite, including in the essence 
of his being the male and female principles, the generative 
and prolific powers of nature. This was the universal 
doctrine in all the ancient religions, and was very naturally 
developed in the symbol of the phallus and cteis among 
the Greeks, and in the corresponding one of the lingam 

* " Hu, the mighty, whose history as a patriarch is precisely 
that of Noah, was promoted to the rank of the principal demon- 
god among the Britons; and, as his chariot was composed of rays 
of the sun, it may be presumed that he was worshipped in conjunc- 
tion with that luminary, and to the same superstition we may refer 
what is said of his light and swift course." — Davies, Mythol. and 
Rites of the Brit. Druids, p. no. 



1 86 THE INEFFABLE NAME. 

and yoni among the Orientalists ; from which symbols 
the masonic point within a circle is a legitimate deriva- 
tion. They all taught that God, the Creator, was both 
male and female. 

Now, this theory is undoubtedly unobjectionable on the 
score of orthodoxy, if we view it in the spiritual sense, in 
which its first propounders must necessarily have intended 
it to be presented to the mind, and not in the gross, 
sensual meaning in which it was subsequently received. 
For, taking the word sex, not in its ordinary and collo- 
quial signification, as denoting the indication of a partic- 
ular physical organization, but in that purely philosophical 
one which alone can be used in such a connection, and 
which simply signifies the mere manifestation of a power, 
it is not to be denied that the Supreme Being must pos- 
sess in himself, and in himself alone, both a generative 
and a prolific power. This idea, which was so exten- 
sively prevalent among all the nations of antiquity,* has 
also been traced in the tetragrammaton, or name of 
Jehovah, with singular ingenuity, by Lanci ; and, what 
is almost equally as interesting, he has, by this discovery, 
been enabled to demonstrate what was, in all i^robability, 
the true pronunciation of the word. 

In giving the details of this philological discovery, I 
will endeavor to make it as comprehensible as it can be 
made to those who are not critically acquainted with the 

* ' ; All the male gods (of the ancients) may be reduced to one, 
the generative energy ; and all the female to one, the prolific 
principle. In fact, they may all be included in the one great Her- 
maphrodite, the u(j(jEPodi]Xvg, who combines in his nature all the 
elements of production, and who continues to support the vast 
creation which originally proceeded from his will." — Russell's 
Connection, i. p. 402. 



THE INEFFABLE NAME. 1 87 

construction of the Hebrew language ; those who are 
will at once appreciate its peculiar character, and will 
excuse the explanatory details, of course unnecessary to 
them. 

The ineffable name, the tetragrammaton, the shem 
hamphorash, — for it is known by all these appellations, — 
consists of four letters, yod, heJi, vau, and heh, forming 
the word rffiT 1 . This word, of course, in accordance with 
the genius of the Hebrew language, is read, as we would 
say, backward, or from right to left, beginning with yod 
[i], and ending with heh [n]. 

Of these letters, the first, yod [i], is equivalent to the 
English i pronounced as e in the word machine. 

The second and fourth letter, heh [n], is an aspirate, 
and has here the sound of the English h. 

And the third letter, vau [l], has the sound of open o. 

Now, reading these four letters, % or I, n, or H, 1, or O, 
and Pi, or H, as the Hebrew requires, from right to left, 
we have the word rtllT 1 , equivalent in English to IH-OH, 
which is really as near to the pronunciation as we can 
well come, notwithstanding it forms neither of the seven 
ways in which the word is said to have been pronounced, 
at different times, by the patriarchs.* 

But, thus pronounced, the word gives us no meaning, 
for there is no such word in Hebrew as ihoh; and, as all 
the Hebrew names were significative of something, it is 
but fair to conclude that this was not the original pronun- 

* It is a tradition that it was pronounced in the following seven 
different ways by the patriarchs, from Methuselah to David, viz. : 
Juha, Jeva, jfova, Jevo, Jeveh, Joke, and Jehovah. In all 
these words the j is to be pronounced as y, the a as ah, the e as a, 
and the v as w. 



lS8 THE INEFFABLE NAME. 

ciation, and that we must look for another which will 
give a meaning to the word. Now, Lanci proceeds to 
the discovery of this true pronunciation, as follows : — 

In the Cabala, a hidden meaning is often deduced 
from a word by transposing or reversing its letters, and 
it was in this way that the Cabalists concealed many of 
their mysteries. 

Now, to reverse a word in English is to read its letters 
from right to left, because our normal mode of reading 
is from left to right. But in Hebrew the contrary rule 
takes place, for there the normal mode of reading is from 
rigid to left ; and therefore, to reverse the reading of a 
word, is to read it from left to right. 

Lanci applied this cabalistic mode to the tetragram- 
maton, when he found that IH-OH, being read reversely, 
makes the word HO-HI.* 

But in Hebrew, ho is the masculine pronoun, equivalent 
to the English he ; and hi is the feminine pronoun, equiv- 
alent to she; and therefore the word HO-HI, literally 
translated, is equivalent to the English compound HE- 
SHE ; that is to say, the Ineffable Name of God in 
Hebrew, being read cabalistically, includes within itself 
the male and female principle, the generative and prolific 
energy of creation ; and here we have, again, the widely- 
spread symbolism of the phallus and the cteis, the lingam 
and the yoni, or their equivalent, the point within a circle, 
and another pregnant proof of the connection between 
Freemasonry and the ancient Mysteries. 

And here, perhaps, we may begin to find some mean- 



* The i is to be pronounced as e, and the whole word as if spelled 
in English ho-he. 



THE INEFFABLE NAME. 1 89 

ing for the hitherto incomprehensible passage in Genesis 
(i. 27) : " So God created man in his own image; in 
the image of God created he him; 7nale and fejnale 
created he them." They could not have been "in the 
image" of IHOH, if they had not been " male and fe- 
male." 

The Cabalists have exhausted their ingenuity and 
imagination in speculations on this sacred name, and 
some of their fancies are really sufficiently interesting to 
repay an investigation. Sufficient, however, has been 
here said to account for the important position that it 
occupies in the masonic system, and to enable us to 
appreciate the symbols by which it has been represented. 

The great reverence, or indeed the superstitious vener- 
ation, entertained by -the ancients for the name of the 
Supreme Being, led them to express it rather in symbols 
or hieroglyphics than in any word" at length. 

We know, for instance, from the recent researches of 
the archaeologists, that in all the documents of the ancient 
Egyptians, written in the demotic or common character 
of the country, the names of the gods were invariably 
denoted by symbols ; and I have already alluded to the 
different modes by which the Jews expressed the tetra- 
grammaton. A similar practice prevailed among the 
other nations of antiquity. Freemasonry has adopted 
the same expedient, and the Grand Architect of the 
Universe, whom it is^the usage, even in ordinary writing, 
to designate by the initials G.\A.-.0.\T.\U.\, is accord- 
ingly presented to us in a variety of symbols, three of 
which particularly require attention. These are the letter 
G, the equilateral triangle, and the All-Seeing Eye. 

Of the letter G I have already spoken. A letter of the 



I90 THE INEFFABLE NAME. 

English alphabet can scarcely be considered an appro- 
priate symbol of an institution which dates its organiza- 
tion and refers its primitive history to a period long 
anterior to the origin of that language. Such a symbol 
is deficient in the two elements of antiquity and univer- 
sality which should characterize every masonic symbol. 
There can, therefore, be no doubt that, in its present form, 
it is a corruption of the old Hebrew symbol, the letter 
yod, by which the sacred name was often expressed. 
This letter is the initial of the word Jehovah, or Ihoh, 
as I have already stated, and is constantly to be met 
with in Hebrew writings as the symbol or abbreviature 
of Jehovah, which word, it will be remembered, is never 
written at length. But because G is, in like manner, the 
initial of God, the equivalent of Jehovah, this letter has 
been incorrectly, and, I cannot refrain from again saying, 
most injudiciously, selected to supply, in modern lodges, 
the place of the Hebrew symbol. 

Having, then, the same meaning and force as the He- 
brew yod, the letter G must be considered, like its proto- 
type, as the symbol of the life-giving and life-sustaining 
power of God, as manifested in the meaning of the word 
Jehovah, or Ihoh, the generative and prolific energy of 
the Creator. 

The All-Seeing Eye is another, and a still more im- 
portant, symbol of the same great Being. Both the 
Hebrews and the Egyptians appear to have derived its 
use from that natural inclination of figurative minds to 
select an organ as the symbol of the function which it is 
intended peculiarly to discharge. Thus the foot w r as 
often adopted as the symbol of swiftness, the arm of 
strength, and the hand of fidelity. On the same principle, 



THE INEFFABLE NAME. I9I 

the open eye was selected as the symbol of watchfulness, 
and the eye of God as the symbol of divine watchfulness 
and care of the universe. The use of the symbol in this 
sense is repeatedly to be found in the Hebrew writers. 
Thus the Psalmist says (Ps. xxxiv. 15), "The eyes of 
the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to 
their cry," which explains a subsequent passage (Ps. 
cxxi. 4), in which it is said, " Behold, he that keepeth 
Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." * 

On the same principle, the Egyptians represented Osiris, 
their chief deity, by the symbol of an open eye, and placed 
this hieroglyphic of him in all their temples. His sym- 
bolic name, on the monuments, was represented by the 
eye accompanying a throne, to which was sometimes 
added an abbreviated figure of the god, and sometimes 
what has been called a hatchet, but which, I consider, 
may as correctly be supposed to be a representation of a 
square. 

The All-Seeing Eye may, then, be considered as a 

* In the apocryphal "Book of the Conversation of God with 
Moses on Mount Sinai," translated by the Rev. W. Cureton from 
an Arabic MS. of the fifteenth century, and published by the 
Philobiblon Society of London, the idea of the eternal watchful- 
ness cf God is thus beautifully allegorized : — 

" Then Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, dost thou sleep or not? 
The Lord said unto Moses, I never sleep : but take a cup and fill it 
with water. Then Moses took a cup and filled it with water, as 
the Lord commanded him. Then the Lord cast into the heart of 
Moses the breath of slumber; so he slept, and the cup fell from his 
hand, and the water which was therein was spilled. Then Moses 
awoke from his sleep. Then said God to Moses, I declare by my 
power, and by my glory, that if I were to withdraw my providence 
from the heavens and the earth for no longer a space of time than 
thou hast slept, they would at once fall to ruin and confusion, like 
as the cup fell from thy hand." 



I92 THE INEFFABLE NAME. 

symbol of God manifested in his omnipresence — his 
guardian and preserving character — to which Solomon 
alludes in the Book of Proverbs (xv. 3), when he says, 
" The eyes of Jehovah are in every place, beholding (or 
as it might be more faithfully translated, watching) the 
evil and the good." It is a symbol of the Omnipresent 
Deity. 

The triangle is another symbol which is entitled to our 
consideration. There is, in fact, no other symbol which 
is more various in its application or more generally dif- 
fused throughout the whole system of both the Spurious 
and the Pure Freemasonry. 

The equilateral triangle appears to have been adopted 
by nearly all the nations of antiquity as a symbol of the 
Deity. 

Among the Hebrews, it has already been stated that 
this figure, with a yod in the centre, was used to repre- 
sent the tetragrammaton, or ineffable "name of God. 

The Egyptians considered the equilateral triangle as 
the most perfect of figures, and a representative of the 
great principle of animated existence, each of its sides 
referring to one of the three departments of creation — the 
animal, the vegetable, and the mineral. 

The symbol of universal nature among the Egyptians 
was the right-angled triangle, of which the perpendicular 
side represented Osiris, or the male principle ; the base, 
Isis, or the female principle ; and the hypothenuse, their 
offspring, Horns, or the world emanating from the union 
of both principles. 

All this, of course, is nothing more nor less than the 
phallus and cteis, or lingam and yoni, under a different 
form. 



THE INEFFABLE NAME. 1 93 

The symbol of the right-angled triangle was afterwards 
adopted by Pythagoras when he visited the banks of the 
Nile ; and the discovery which he is said to have made 
in relation to the properties of this figure, but which he 
really learned from the Egyptian priests, is commemo- 
rated in Masonry by the introduction of the forty-seventh 
problem of Euclid's First Book among 'the symbols of 
the third degree. Here the same mystical application is 
supplied as in the Egyptian figure, namely, that the 
union of the male and female, or active and passive 
principles of nature, has produced the world. For the 
geometrical proposition being that the squares of the 
perpendicular and base are equal to the square of the 
hypothenuse, they may be said to produce it in the same 
way as Osiris and Isis are equal to, or produce, the 
world. 

Thus the perpendicular — Osiris, or the active, male 
principle — being represented by a line whose measure- 
ment is 3; and the base — Isis, or the passive, female 
principle — by a line whose measurement is 4 ; then their 
union, or the addition of the squares of these numbers, 
will produce a square whose root will be the hypothenuse, 
or a line whose measurement must be 5. For the square 
of 3 is 9, and the square of 4 is 16, and the square of 5 
is 25 ; but 9 added to 16 is equal to 25 ; and thus, out of 
the addition, or coming together, of the squares of the 
perpendicular and base, arises the square of the hypothe- 
nuse, just as, out of the coming together, in the Egyptian 
system, of the active and passive principles, arises, or is 
generated, the world. 

In the mediaeval history of the Christian church, the 
13 



194 THE INEFFABLE NAME. 

great ignorance of the people, and their inclination to a 
sort of materialism, led them to abandon the symbolic 
representations of the Deity, and to depict the Father 
with the form and lineaments of an aged man, many of 
which irreverent paintings, as far back as the twelfth 
century, are to be found in the religious books and edifices 
of Europe.* But, after the period of the renaissance, a 
better spirit and, a purer taste began to pervade the artists 
of the church, and thenceforth the Supreme Being was 
represented only by his name — the tetragrammaton — 
inscribed within an equilateral triangle, and placed within 
a circle of rays. Didron, in his inval- 
uable work on Christian Icono£raphv, I :// % 
gives one of these symbols, which was ijy \ %^ 
carved on wood in the seventeenth ^gT" '" ^ ,W 
century, of which I annex a copy. 

But even in the earliest ages, when the ////;// %P 

Deity was painted or sculptured as a personage, the nim- 
bus, or glory, which surrounded the head of the Father, 
was often made to assume a triangular form. Didron says 
on this subject, U A nimbus, of a triangular form, is thus 
seen to be the exclusive attribute of the Deity, and most 
frequently restricted to the Father Eternal. The other 
persons of the trinity sometimes wear the triangle, but 
only in representations of the trinity, and because the 
Father is with them. Still, even then, beside the Father, 



* I have in my possession a rare copy of the Vulgate Bible, in 
black letter, printed at Lyons, in 1522. The frontispiece is a 
coarsely executed wood cut, divided into six compartments, and 
representing the six days of the creation. The Father is, in each 
compartment, pictured as an aged man engaged in his creative 
task. 



THE INEFFABLE NAME. 1 95 

who has a triangle, the Son and the Holy Ghost are often 
drawn with a circular nimbus only." * 

The triangle has, in all ages and in all religions, been 
deemed a symbol of Deity. 

The Egyptians, the Greeks, and the other nations of 
antiquity, considered this figure, with its three sides, as a 
symbol of the creative energy displayed in the active and 
passive, or male and female, principles, and their pro- 
duct, the world ; the Christians referred it to their dogma 
of the trinity as a manifestation of the Supreme God ; and 
the Jews and the primitive masons to the three periods of 
existence included in the signification of the tetragramma- 
ton — the past, the present, and the future. 

In the higher degrees of Masonry, the triangle is the most 
important of all symbols, and most generally assumes the 
name of the Delta, in allusion to the fourth letter of the 
Greek alphabet, which is of the same form and bears that 
appellation. 

The Delta, or mystical triangle, is generally surrounded 
by a circle of rays, called a " glory." When this glory 
is distinct from the figure, and surrounds it in the form of 
a circle (as in the example just given from Didron), it is 
then an emblem of God's eternal glory. When, as is most 
usual in the masonic symbol, the rays emanate from the 
centre of the triangle, and, as it were, enshroud it in their 
brilliancy, it is symbolic of the Divine Light. The per- 
verted ideas of the pagans referred these rays of light to 
their Sun-god and their Sabian worship. 

But the true masonic idea of this glory is, that it sym- 
bolizes that Eternal Light of Wisdom which surrounds the 

* Christian Iconography, Millington's trans., vol. i. p. 59. 



I96 THE INEFFABLE NAME. 

Supreme Architect as with a sea of glory, and from him, 
as a common centre, emanates to the universe of his crea- 
tion, and to which the prophet Ezekiel alludes in his elo- 
quent description of Jehovah : " And I saw as the color 
of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, 
from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from 
his loins even downward, I saw, as it were, the appear- 
ance of fire, and it had brightness round about." (Chap. 
1, ver. 27.) 

Dante has also beautifully described this circumfused 
light of Deity : — 

" There is in heaven a light whose goodly shine 
Makes the Creator visible to all 
Created, that in seeing him, alone 
Have peace; and in a circle spreads so far, 
That the circumference were too loose a zone 
To girdle in the sun." 

On a recapitulation, then, of the views that have been 
advanced in relation to these three symbols of the Deity 
which are to be found in the masonic system, we may say 
that each one expresses a different attribute. 

The letter G is the symbol of the self-existent Jehovah. 

The All-Seeing- Eye is the symbol of the omnipresent 
God. 

The triangle* is the symbol of the Supreme Architect 

* The triangle, or delta, is the symbol of Deity for this reason. 
In geometry a single line cannot represent a perfect figure ; neither 
can two lines; three lines, however, constitute the triangle or first 
perfect and demonstrable figure. Hence this figure symbolizes 
the Eternal God, infinitely perfect in his nature. But the triangle 
properly refers to God only in his quality as an Eternal Being, 
its three sides representing the Past, the Present, and the Future. 
Some Christian symbologists have made the three sides represent 
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; but they evidently thereby 



THE INEFFABLE NAME. 1 97 

of the Universe — the Creator ; and when surrounded 
by rays of glory, it becomes a symbol of the Architect 
and Bestower of Light. 

And now, after all, is there not in this whole prevalence 
of the name of God, in so many different symbols, through- 
out the masonic system, something more than a mere evi- 
dence of the religious proclivities of the institution? Is 
there not behind this a more profound symbolism, which 
constitutes, in fact, the very essence of Freemasonry? 
" The names of God," said a»learned theologian at the 
beginning of this century, " were intended to communi- 
cate the knowledge of God himself. By these, men were 
enabled to receive some scanty ideas of his essential 
majesty, goodness, and power, and to know both whom 
we are to believe, and what we are to believe of him." 

And this train of thought is eminently applicable to the 
admission of the name into the system of Masonry. With 
us, the name of God, however expressed, is a symbol of 
Divine Truth, which it should be the incessant labor of 
a Mason to seek. 

destroy the divine unity, making a trinity of Gods in the unity of 
a Godhead. The Gnostic trinity of Manes consisted of one God 
and two principles, one of good and the other of evil. The Indian 
trinity, symbolized also by. the triangle, consisted of Brahma, Siva, 
and Vishnu, the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer, represented 
by Earth, Water, and Air. This symbolism of the Eternal God 
by the triangle is the reason why a trinitarian scheme has been so 
prevalent in all religions — the three sides naturally suggesting 
the three divisions of the Godhead. But in the Pagan and Oriental 
religions this trinity was nothing else but a tritheism. 




XXV. 



THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 



/^^'HE compound character of a speculative science 
g\ and an operative art, which the masonic institu- 
^F J tion assumed at the building of King Solomon's 
temple, in consequence of the union, at that era, of the 
Pure Freemasonry of the Noachidce * with the Spurious 
Freemasonry of the Tyrian workmen, has supplied it 
with two distinct kinds of symbols — the mythical, or 
legendary, and the material; but these are so thoroughly 



* Noachid?e, or Noachites, the descendants of Noah. This 
patriarch having alone preserved the true name and worship of 
God amid a race of impious idolaters, the Freemasons claim to 
be his descendants, because they preserve that pure religion which 
distinguished this second father of the human race from the rest 
of the world. (See the author's Lexicon of Freemasonry.') The 
Tyrian workmen at the temple of Solomon were the descendants 
of that other division of the race who fell off, at Shinar, from the 
true worship, and repudiated the principles of Noah. The Tyrians, 
however, like many other ancient mystics, had recovered some 
portion of the lost light, and the complete repossession was 
finally achieved by their union with the Jewish masons, who were 
Noachidse. 



THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 1 99 

united in object and design, that it is impossible to appre- 
ciate the one without an investigation of the other. 

Thus, by way of illustration, it may be observed, that 
the temple itself has been adopted as a material symbol 
of the world (as I have already shown in former articles), 
while the legendary history of the fate of its builder is a 
mythical symbol of man's destiny in the world. What- 
ever is visible or tangible to the senses in our types and 
emblems — such as the implements of operative masonry, 
the furniture and ornaments of a lodge, or the ladder of 
seven steps — is a material symbol; while whatever de- 
rives its existence from tradition, and presents itself in 
the form of an allegory or legend, is a mythical symbol. 
Hiram the Builder, therefore, and all that refers to the 
legend of his connection with the temple, and his fate, — 
such as the sprig of acacia, the hill near Mount Moriah, 
and the lost word, — are to be considered as belonging to 
the class of mythical or legendary symbols. 

And this division is not arbitrary, but depends on the 
nature of the types and the aspect in which they present 
themselves to our view. 

Thus the sprig of acacia, although it is material, visi- 
ble, and tangible, is, nevertheless, not to be treated as a 
material symbol ; for, as it derives all its significance 
from its intimate connection with the legend of Hiram 
Abif, which is a mythical symbol, it cannot, without a 
violent and inexpedient disruption, be separated from the 
same class. For the same reason, the small hill near 
Mount Moriah, the search of the twelve Fellow Crafts, 
and the whole train of circumstances connected with the 
lost word, are to be viewed simply as mythical or legen- 
dary, and not as material symbols. 



200 THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 

These legends of Freemasonry constitute a considerable 
and a very important part of its ritual. Without them, 
the most valuable portions of the masonic as a scientific 
system would cease to exist. It is, in fact, in the tradi- 
tions and legends of Freemasonry, more, even, than in its 
material symbols, that we are to find the deep religious 
instruction which the institution is intended to inculcate. 
It must be remembered that Freemasonry has been de- 
fined to be " a system of morality, veiled in allegory and 
illustrated by symbols." Symbols, then, alone, do not 
constitute the whole of the system : allegory comes in 
for its share ; and this allegory, which veils the divine 
truths of masonry, is presented to the neophyte in the 
various legends which have been traditionally preserved 
in the order. 

The close connection, at least in design and method of 
execution, between the institution of Freemasonry and the 
ancient Mysteries, which were largely imbued with the 
mythical character of the ancient religions, led, undoubt- 
edly, to the introduction of the same mythical character 
into the masonic system. 

So general, indeed, was the diffusion of the myth or 
legend among the philosophical, historical, and religious 
systems of antiquity, that Heyne remarks, on this subject, 
that all the history and philosophy of the ancients pro- 
ceeded from myths.* 

The word myth, from the Greek [ivdog, a story, in its 

* "A mythis omnis priscorum hominum turn historia turn phi- 
losophia procedit." — Ad Apollo d. Atketi. Biblioth. not. f. p. 3. — 
And Faber says, "Allegory and personification were peculiarly 
agreeable to the genius of antiquity; and the simplicity of truth 
was continually sacrificed at the shrine of poetical decoration." — 
On the Cabiri. 



THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 201 

original acceptation, signified simply a statement or narra- 
tive of an event, without any necessary implication of truth 
or falsehood ; but, as the word is now used, it conveys the 
idea of a personal narrative of remote date, which, although 
not necessarily untrue, is certified only by the internal evi- 
dence of the tradition itself.* 

Creuzer, in his " Symbolik," says that myths and sym- 
bols were derived, on the one hand, from the helpless 
condition and the poor and scanty beginnings of religious 
knowledge among the ancient peoples, and on the other, 
from the benevolent designs of the priests educated in the 
East, or of Eastern origin, to form them to a purer and 
higher knowledge. 

But the observations of that profoundly philosophical 
historian, Mr. Grote, give so correct a view of the proba- 
ble origin of this universality of the mythical element in 
all the ancient religions, and are, withal, so appropriate 
to the subject of masonic legends which I am now about 
to discuss, that I cannot justly refrain from a liberal quota- 
tion of his remarks. 

" The allegorical interpretation of the myths," he says, 
" has been, by several learned investigators, especially by 
Creuzer, connected with the hypothesis of an ancient and 
highly-instructed body of priests, having their origin either 
in Egypt or the East, and communicating to the rude 
and barbarous Greeks religious, physical, and historical 
knowledge, under the veil of symbols. At a time (we 
are told) when language was yet in its infancy, visible 

* See Grote, History of Greece, vol. i. ch. xvi. p. 479, whence 
this definition has been substantially derived. The definitions of 
Creuzer, Hermann, Buttmann, Heyne, Welcker, Voss, and Milller 
are none of them better, and some of them not as good. 



202 THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 

symbols were the most vivid means of acting upon the 
minds of ignorant hearers. The next step was to pass to 
symbolical language and expressions ; for a plain and lit- 
eral exposition, even if understood at all, would at least 
have been listened to with indifference, as not correspond- 
ing with any mental demand. In such allegorizing way, 
then, the early priests set forth their doctrines respecting 
God, nature, and humanity, — a refined monotheism and 
theological philosophy, — and to this purpose the earliest 
myths were turned. But another class of myths, more 
popular and more captivating, grew up under the hands 
of the poets — myths purely epical, and descriptive of 
real or supposed past events. The allegorical myths, 
being taken up by the poets, insensibly became confound- 
ed in the same category with the purely narrative myths ; 
the matter symbolized was no longer thought of, while 
the symbolizing words came to be construed in their own 
literal meaning, and the basis of the early allegory, thus 
lost among the general public, was only preserved as a 
secret among various religious fraternities, composed of 
members allied together by initiation in certain mystical 
ceremonies, and administered by hereditary families of 
presiding priests. 

" In the Orphic and Bacchic sects, in the Eleusinian 
and Samothracian Mysteries, was thus treasured up the 
secret doctrine of the old theological and philosophical 
myths, which had once constituted the primitive legen- 
dary stock of Greece in the hands of the original priest- 
hood and in the ages anterior to Homer. Persons who 
had gone through the preliminary ceremonies of initiation 
were permitted at length to hear, though under strict obli- 
gation of secrecy, this ancient religion and cosmogonic 



THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 203 

doctrine, revealing the destination of man and the certain- 
ty of posthumous rewards and punishments, all disen-. 
gaged from the corruptions of poets, as well as from the 
symbols and allegories under which they still remained 
buried in the eyes of the vulgar. The Mysteries of Greece 
were thus traced up to the earliest ages, and represented 
as the only faithful depositaries of that purer theology and 
physics which had been originally communicated, though 
under the unavoidable inconvenience of a symbolical 
expression, by an enlightened priesthood, coming from 
abroad, to the then rude barbarians of the country." * 



* Hist, of Greece, vol. i. ch. xvi. p. 579. The idea of the exist- 
ence of an enlightened people, who lived at a remote era, and 
came from the East, was a very prevalent notion among the ancient 
traditions. It is corroborative of this that the Hebrew word ^"jt 1 ^ 
kedem, signifies, in respect to place, the east, and, in respect to 
time, olden time, ancient days. The phrase in Isaiah" xix. 11, 
which reads, " I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings," 
might just as well have been translated " the son of kings of the 
East." In a note to the passage Ezek. xliii. 2, " the glory of the God 
of Israel came from the way of the East," Adam Clarke says, " All 
knowledge, all religion, and all arts and sciences, have travelled, 
according to the course of the sun, from east to west! " Bazot 
tells us (in his Manuel du Franc-ma^on, p. 154) that "the venera- 
tion which masons entertain for the east confirms an opinion pre- 
viously announced, that the religious system of Masonry came 
from the east, and has reference to the primitive religion, whose 
first corruption was the worship of the sun." And lastly, the 
masonic reader will recollect the answer given in the Leland MS. 
to the question respecting the origin of Masonry, namely, "It did 
begin " (I modernize the orthography) " with the first men in the 
east, which were before the first men of the west; and coming 
westerly, it hath brought herewith all comforts to the wild and 
comfortless." Locke's commentary on this answer may conclude 
this note: "It should seem, by this, that masons believe there 
were men in the east before Adam, who is called the ' first man of 
the west,' and that arts and sciences began in the east. Some 



204 THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 

In this long but interesting extract we find not only 
a philosophical account of the origin and design of the 
ancient myths, but a fair synopsis of all that can be taught 
in relation to the symbolical construction of Freemasonry, 
as one of the depositaries of a mythical theology. 

The myths of Masonry, at first perhaps nothing more 
than the simple traditions of the Pure Freemasonry of 
the antediluvian system, having been corrupted and mis- 
understood in the separation of the races, were again 
purified, and adapted to the inculcation of truth, at first 
by the disciples of the Spurious Freemasonry, and then, 
more fully and perfectly, in the development of that sys- 
tem which we now practise. And if there be any leaven 
of error still remaining in the interpretation of our masonic 
myths, we must seek to disengage them from the corrup- 
tions with which they have been invested by ignorance 
and by misinterpretation. We must give to them their 
true significance, and trace them back to those ancient 
doctrines and faith whence the ideas which they are 
intended to embody were derived. 

The myths or legends which present themselves to our 
attention in the course of a complete study of the sym- 
bolic system of Freemasonry may be considered as 
divided into three classes : — 



authors, of great note for learning, have been of the same opinion ; 
and it is certain that Europe and Africa (which, in respect to Asia, 
may be called western countries) were wild and savage long after 
arts and politeness of manners were in great perfection in China 
and the Indies." The Talmudists make the same allusions to the 
superiority of the east. Thus, Rabbi Bechai saj-s, " Adam was 
created with his face towards the east that he might behold the 
light and the rising sun, whence the east was to him the anterior 
part of the world." 



THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 205 

1. The historical myth. 

2. The philosophical myth. 

3. The mythical history. 

And these three classes may be defined as follows : — 

1. The myth may be engaged in the transmission of a 
narrative of early deeds and events, having a foundation 
in truth, which truth, however, has been greatly distorted 
and perverted by the omission or introduction of circum- 
stances and personages, and then it constitutes the histor- 
ical myth. 

2. Or it may have been invented and adopted as the 
medium of enunciating a particular thought, or of incul- 
cating a certain doctrine, when it becomes a philosophical 
myth. 

3. Or, lastly, the truthful elements of actual history 
may greatly predominate over the fictitious and invented 
materials of the myth, and the narrative may be, in the 
main, made up of facts, with a slight coloring of imagi- 
nation, when it forms a mythical history * 

These form the three divisions of the legend or myth 
(for I am not disposed, on the present occasion, like some 
of the German mythological writers, to make a distinc- 
tion between the two words f ) ; and to one of these three 



* Strauss makes a division of myths into historical, philosophi- 
cal, and poetical. — Lebe?i Jesu. — His poetical myth agrees with 
my first division, his philosophical with my second, and his 
historical with my third. But I object to the word poetical, as a 
distinctive term, because all myths have their foundation in the 
poetic idea. 

f Ulmann, for instance, distinguishes between a myth and a 
legend — the former containing, to a great degree, fiction com- 
bined with history, and the latter having but a few faint echoes of 
mythical history. 



2o6 THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 

divisions we must appropriate every legend which belongs 
to the mythical symbolism of Freemasonry. 

These masonic myths partake, in their general charac- 
ter, of the nature of the myths which constituted the 
foundation of the ancient religions, as they have just been 
described in the language of Mr. Grote. Of these latter 
myths, Miiller * says that " their source is to be found, 
for the most part, in oral tradition," and that the real and 
the ideal — that is to say, the facts of history and the 
inventions of imagination — concurred, by their union 
and reciprocal fusion, in producing the myth. 

Those are the very principles that govern the construc- 
tion of the masonic myths or legends. These, too, owe 
their existence entirely to oral tradition, and are made up, 
as I have just observed, of a due admixture of the real 
and the ideal — the true and the false — the facts of his- 
tory and the inventions of allegory. 

Dr. Oliver remarks that " the first series of historical 
facts, after the fall of man, must necessarily have been 
traditional, and transmitted from father to son by oral 
communication." I The same system, adopted in all the 
Mysteries, has been continued in the masonic institution ; 
and all the esoteric instructions contained in the legends 
of Freemasonry are forbidden to be written, and can be 
communicated only in the oral intercourse of Freemasons 
with each other, j 

* In his " Prolegomena zu einer vvissenshaftlichen Mythologie," 
cap. iv. This valuable work was translated in 1844, by Mr. John 
Leitch. 

t Historical Landmarks, i. 53. 

X See an article, by the author, on " The Unwritten Landmarks 
of Freemasonry," in the first volume of the Masonic Miscellany, 
in which this subject is treated at considerable length. 



THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 207 

De Wette, in his Criticism on the Mosaic History, lays 
down the test by which a myth is to be distinguished from 
a strictly historical narrative, as follows, namely : that the 
myth must owe its origin to the intention of the inventor 
not to satisfy the natural thirst for historical truth by a 
simple narration of facts, but rather to delight or touch 
the feelings, or to illustrate some philosophical or religious 
truth. 

This definition precisely fits the character of the myths 
of Masonry. Take, for instance, the legend of the mas- 
ter's degree, or the myth of Hiram Abif. As " a simple 
narration of facts," it is of no great value — certainly not 
of value commensurate with the labor that has been en- 
gaged in its transmission. Its invention — by which is 
meant, not the invention or imagination of all the inci- 
dents of which it is composed, for there are abundant 
materials of the true and real in its details, but its inven- 
tion or composition in the form of a myth by the addition 
of some features, the suppression of others, and the 
general arrangement of the whole — was not intended to 
add a single item to the great mass of history, but alto- 
gether, as De Wette says, " to illustrate a philosophical 
or religious truth," which truth, it is hardly necessary for 
me to say, is the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. 

It must be evident, from all that has been said respecting 
the analogy in origin and design between the masonic and 
the ancient religious myths, that no one acquainted with 
the true science of this subject can, for a moment, contend 
that all the legends and traditions of the order are, to the 
very letter, historical facts. All that can be claimed for 
them is, that in some there is simply a substratum of 
history, the edifice constructed on this foundation being 



2o8 THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 

purely inventive, to serve as a medium for inculcating 
some religious truth ; in others, nothing more than an 
idea to which the legend or myth is indebted for its exist- 
ence, and of which it is, as a symbol, the exponent; and 
in others, again, a great deal of truthful narrative, more 
or less intermixed with fiction, but the historical always 
predominating. 

Thus there is a legend, contained in some of our old 
records, which states that Euclid was a distinguished 
Mason, and that he introduced Masonry among the 
Egyptians.* Now, it is not at all necessary to the 



* As a matter of some interest to the curious reader, I insert the 
legend as published in the Gentleman's Magazine of June, 1S15, 
from, it is said, a parchment roll supposed to have been written 
early in the seventeenth century, and which, if so, was in all prob- 
ability copied from one of an older date : — 

" Moreover, when Abraham and Sara his wife went into Egipt, 
there he taught the Seaven Scyences to the Egiptians; and he had 
a worthy Scoller that height Ewclyde, and he learned right well, 
and was a master of all the vij Sciences liberall. And in his dayes 
it befell that the lord and the estates of the realme had soe many 
sonns that they had gotten some by their wifes and some by other 
ladyes of the realme; for that land is a hott land and a plentious 
of generacion. And they had not competent livehode to find with 
their children; wherefor they made much care. And then the 
King of the land made a great counsell and a parliament, to witt, 
how they might find their children honestly as gentlemen. And 
they could find no manner of good way. And then they did crye 
through all the realme, if there were any man that could enforme 
them, that he should come to them, and he should be soe re- 
warded for his travail, that he should hold him pleased. 

" After that this cry was made, then came this worthy clarke 
Ewclyde, and said to the King and to all his great lords : ' If yee 
will, take me your children to governe, and to teach them one of 
the Seaven Scyences, wherewith they may live honestly as gentle- 
men should, under a condicion that yee will grant mee and them 
a commission that I may have power to rule them after the man- 



THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 209 

orthodoxy of a Mason's creed that he should literally 
believe that Euclid, the great geometrician, was really a 
Freemason, and that the ancient Egyptians were indebted 
to him for the establishment of the institution among 
them. Indeed, the palpable anachronism in the legend 
which makes Euclid the contemporary of Abraham 
necessarily prohibits any such belief, and shows that the 
whole story is a sheer invention. The intelligent Mason, 
however, will not wholly reject the legend, as ridiculous 
or absurd ; but, with a due sense of the nature and design 
of our system of symbolism, will rather accept it as what, 
in the classification laid down on a preceding page, would 
be called " a philosophical myth" — an ingenious method 
of conveying, symbolically, a masonic truth. 

Euclid is here very appropriately used as a type of 
geometry, that science of which he was so eminent a 
teacher, and the myth or legend then symbolizes the fact 
that there was in Egypt a close connection between that 
science and the great moral and religious system, which 
was among the Egyptians, as well as other ancient na- 
tions, what Freemasonry is in the present day — a secret 
institution, established for the inculcation of the same 
principles, and inculcating them in the same symbolic 
manner. So interpreted, this legend corresponds to all 
the developments of Egyptian history, which teach us 
how close a connection existed in that country between 

ner that the science ought to be ruled.' And that the Kinge and 
all his counsell granted to him anone, and sealed their commis- 
sion. And then this worthy tooke to him these lords' sonns, and 
taught them the scyence of Geometrie in practice, for to work in 
stones all manner of worthy worke that belongeth to buildinge 
churches, temples, castells, towres, and mannors, and all other 
manner of buildings." 

H 



2IO THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 

the religious and scientific systems. Thus Kenrick tells 
us, that " when we read of foreigners [in Egypt] being 
obliged to submit to painful and tedious ceremonies of 
initiation, it was not that they might learn the secret 
meaning of the rites of Osiris or Isis, but that they might 
partake of the knowledge of astronomy, physic, geome- 
try, and theology." * 

Another illustration will be found in the myth or legend 
of the Winding Stairs, by which the Fellow Crafts are 
said to have ascended to the middle chamber to receive 
their wages. Now, this myth, taken in its literal sense, 
is, in all its parts, opposed to history and probability. 
As a myth, it finds its origin in the fact that there was a 
place in the temple called the " Middle Chamber," and 
that there were "winding stairs" by which it was 
reached ; for we read, in the First Book of Kings, that 
" they went up with winding stairs into the middle cham- 
ber."! But we have no historical evidence that the stairs 
were of the construction, or that the chamber was used 
for the purpose, indicated in the mythical narrative, as it 
is set forth in the ritual of the second degree. The whole 
legend is, in fact, an historical myth, in which the mystic 
number of the steps, the process of passing to the cham- 
ber, and the wages there received, are inventions added 
to or ingrafted on the fundamental history contained in 
the sixth chapter of Kings, to inculcate important sym- 
bolic instruction relative to the principles of the order. 
These lessons might, it is true, have been inculcated in 
a dry, didactic form ; but the allegorical and mythical 
method adopted tends to make a stronger and deeper 

* Ancient Egypt under the Pharaohs, vol. i. p. 393. 
f 1 Kings vi. 8. 



THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 211 

impression on the mind, and at the same time serves 
more closely to connect the institution of Masonry with 
the ancient temple. 

Again : the myth which traces the origin of the insti- 
tution of Freemasonry to the beginning of the world, 
making its commencement coeval with the creation, — a 
myth which is, even at this day, ignorantly interpreted, 
by some, as an historical fact, and the reference to which 
is still preserved in the date of " anno lucis," which is 
affixed to all masonic documents, — is but a philosophical 
myth, symbolizing the idea which analogically connects 
the creation of physical light in the universe with the 
birth of masonic or spiritual and intellectual light in the 
candidate. The one is the type of the other When, 
therefore, Preston says that " from the commencement of 
the world we may trace the foundation of Masonry," and 
when he goes on to assert that " ever since symmetry be- 
gan, and harmony displayed her charms, our order has 
had a being," we are not to suppose that Preston intended 
to teach that a masonic lodge was held in the Garden of 
Eden. Such a supposition would justly subject us to the 
ridicule of every intelligent person. The only idea in- 
tended to be conveyed is this : that the principles of Free- 
masonry, which, indeed, are entirely independent of any 
special organization which it may have as a society, are 
coeval with the existence of the world ; that when God 
said, " Let there be light," the material light thus pro- 
duced was an antitype of that spiritual light that must 
burst upon the mind of every candidate when his intellec- 
tual world, theretofore " without form and void," becomes 
adorned and peopled with the living thoughts and divine 
principles which constitute the great system of Specula- 



212 THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 

tive Masonry, and when the spirit of the institution, 
brooding over the vast deep of his mental chaos, shall, 
from intellectual darkness, bring forth intellectual light* 

In the legends of the Master's degree and of the 
Royal Arch there is a commingling of the historical 
myth and the mythical history, so that profound judg- 
ment is often required to discriminate these differing ele- 
ments. As, for example, the legend of the third degree 
is, in some of its details, undoubtedly mythical — in 
others, just as undoubtedly historical. The difficulty, 
however, of separating the one from the other, and of 
distinguishing the fact from the fiction, has necessarily 
produced a difference of opinion on the subject among 
masonic writers. Hutchinson, and, after him, Oliver, 
think the whole legend an allegory or philosophical 
myth. I am inclined, with Anderson and the earlier 
writers, to suppose it a mythical history. In the Royal 
Arch degree, the legend of the rebuilding of the temple 
is clearly historical ; but there are so many accompanying 
circumstances, which are uncertified, except by oral tra- 
dition, as to give to the entire narrative the appearance 
of a mythical history. The particular legend of the three 
weary sojourners is undoubtedly a myth, and perhaps 
merely a philosophical one, or the enunciation of an idea 
— namety, the reward of successful perseverance, through 
all dangers, in the search for divine truth. 

" To form symbols and to interpret symbols," says the 
learned Creuzer, " were the main occupation of the an- 
cient priesthood." Upon the studious Mason the same 
task of interpretation devolves. He who desires properly 

* An allusion to this symbolism is retained in one of the well- 
known mottoes of the order — " Lux e tenebris." 



THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 213 

to appreciate the profound wisdom of the institution of 
which he is the disciple, must not be content, with unin- 
quiring credulity, to accept all the traditions that are 
imparted to him as veritable histories ; nor yet, with 
unphilosophic incredulity, to reject them in a mass, as 
fabulous inventions. In these extremes there is equal 
error. " The myth," says Hermann, " is the representa- 
tion of an idea." It is for that idea that the student must 
search in the myths of Masonry. Beneath every one of 
them there is something richer and more spiritual than 
the mere narrative.* This spiritual essence he must 
learn to extract from the ore in which, like a precious 
metal, it lies imbedded. It is this that constitutes the 
true value of Freemasonry. Without its symbols, and 
its myths or legends, and the ideas and conceptions 
which lie at the bottom of them, the time, the labor, and 
the expense incurred in perpetuating the institution, 
would be thrown away. Without them, it would be 
a " vain and empty show." Its grips and signs are worth 
nothing, except for social purposes, as mere means of 
recognition. So, too, would be its words, were it not that 
they are, for the most part, symbolic. Its social habits 
and its charities are but incidental points in its constitu- 

* "An allegory is that in which, under borrowed characters and 
allusions, is shadowed some real action or moral instruction ; or, to 
keep more strictly to its derivation (aklog, alius, and uyoQevu), dico), 
it is that in which one thing is related and another thing is under- 
stood. Hence it is apparent that an allegory must have two 
senses — the literal and mystical ; and for that reason it must con- 
vey its instruction under borrowed characters and allusions 
throughout." — The Antiquity, Evidence, and Certainty of Chris- 
tianity canvassed, or Dr. Middletoii's Examination of the Bishop 
of London's Discourses on Prophecy. By Anselm Bayly, LL. B. y 
Minor Canon of St. Paul's. Lond. 1751. 



214 THE LEGENDS OF FREEMASONRY. 

tion — of themselves good, it is true, but capable of being 
attained in a simpler way. Its true value, as a science, 
consists in its symbolism — in the great lessons of divine 
truth which it teaches, and in the admirable manner in 
which it accomplishes that teaching. Every one, there- 
fore, who desires to be a skilful Mason, must not suppose 
that the task is accomplished by a perfect knowledge of 
the mere phraseology of the ritual, by a readiness in 
opening and closing a lodge, nor by an off-hand capacity 
to confer degrees. All these are good in their places, but 
without the internal meaning they are but mere child's 
play. He must study the myths, the traditions, and the 
symbols of the order, and learn their true interpretation ; 
for this alone constitutes the science and the philosophy — 
the end, aim, and design of Speculative Masonry. 




XXVI. 



THE LEGEND OF THE WINDING STAIRS. 




EFORE proceeding to the examination of those 
more important mythical legends which . appro- 
priately belong to the Master's degree, it will 
not, I think, be unpleasing or nninstructive to 
consider the only one which is attached to the Fellow 
Craft's degree — that, namely, which refers to the alle- 
gorical ascent of the Winding Stairs to the Middle 
Chamber, and the symbolic payment of the workmen's 
wages. 

Although the legend of the Winding Stairs forms an 
important tradition of Ancient Craft Masonry, the only 
allusion to it in Scripture is to be found in a single verse 
in the sixth chapter of the First Book of Kings, and is in 
these words : " The door for the middle chamber was 
in the right side of the house ; and they went up with 
winding stairs into the middle chamber, and out of the 
middle into the third." Out of this slender material has 
been constructed an allegory, which, if properly consid- 
ered in its symbolical relations, will be found to be of 
surpassing beauty. But it is only as a symbol that we 



2l6 THE LEGEND OF 

can regard this whole' tradition ; for the histoi~ a j facts 
and the architectural details alike forbid us for a -^pent 
to suppose that the legend, as it is rehearsed if ,-ie seco_d 
degree of Masonry, is anything more than a magnificent 
philosophical myth. 

Let us inquire into the true design of this legend, and 
learn the lesson of symbolism which it is intended to 
teach. 

In the investigation of the true meaning of every ma- 
sonic symbol and allegory, we must be governed by the 
single principle that the whole design of Freemasonry as 
a speculative science is the investigation of divine truth. 
To this great object everything is subsidiary. The Mason 
is, from the moment of his initiation as an Entered Ap- 
prentice, to the time at which he receives the full fruition 
of masonic light, an investigator — a laborer in the quarry 
and the temple — whose reward is to be Truth. All the 
ceremonies and traditions of the order tend to this ulti- 
mate design. Is there light to be asked for? It is the 
intellectual light of wisdom and truth. Is there a word 
to be sought? That word is the symbol of truth. Is 
there a loss of something that had been promised? That 
loss is typical of the failure of man, in the infirmity of his 
nature, to discover divine truth. Is there a substitute to 
be appointed for that loss? It is an allegory which 
teaches us that in this world man can only approximate 
to the full conception of truth. 

Hence there is in Speculative Masonry always a prog- 
ress, symbolized by its peculiar ceremonies of initiation. 
There is an advancement from a lower to a higher state 
— from darkness to light — from death to life — from 
error to truth. The candidate is always ascending ; he 



THE WINDING STAIRS. 21 7 

is never stationary ; he never goes back, but each step he 
takes brings him to some new mental illumination — to 
the knowledge of some more elevated doctrine. The 
teaching of the Divine Master is, in respect to this con- 
tinual progress, the teaching of Masonry — " No man 
having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is 
fit for the kingdom of heaven." And similar to this is 
the precept of Pythagoras : " When travelling, turn not 
back, for if you do the Furies will accompany you." 

Now, this principle of masonic symbolism is apparent 
in many places in each of the degrees. In that of the 
Entered Apprentice we find it developed in the theo- 
logical ladder, which, resting on earth, leans its top upon 
heaven, thus inculcating the idea of an ascent from a 
lower to a higher sphere, as the object of masonic labor. 
In the Master's degree we find it exhibited in its most 
religious form, in the restoration from death to life — in 
the change from the obscurity of the grave to the holy 
of holies of the Divine Presence. In all the degrees we 
find it presented in the ceremony of circumambulation, 
in which there is a gradual inquisition, and a passage from 
an inferior to a superior officer. And lastly, the same 
symbolic idea is conveyed in the Fellow Craft's degree 
in the legend of the Winding Stairs. 

In an investigation of the symbolism of the Winding 
Stairs we shall be directed to the true explanation by a 
reference to their origin, their number, the objects which 
they recall, and their termination, but above all by a con- 
sideration of the great design which an ascent upon them 
was intended to accomplish. 

The steps of this Winding Staircase commenced, we 
are informed, at the porch of the temple ; that is to say, 



2l8 THE LEGEND OF 

at its very entrance. But nothing is more undoubted in 
the science of masonic symbolism than that the temple 
was the representative of the world purified by the She- 
kinah, or the Divine Presence. The world of the profane 
is without the temple ; the world of the initiated is within 
its sacred walls. Hence to enter the temple, to pass 
within the porch, to be made a Mason, and to be born 
into the world of masonic light, are all synonymous and 
convertible terms. Here, then, the symbolism of the 
Winding Stairs begins. 

The Apprentice, having entered within the porch of 
the temple, has begun his masonic life. But the first 
degree in Masonry, like the lesser Mysteries of the ancient 
systems of initiation, is only a preparation and purifica- 
tion for something higher. The Entered Apprentice is 
the child in Masonry. The lessons which he receives 
are simply intended to cleanse the heart and prepare the 
recipient for that mental illumination which is to be given 
in the succeeding degrees. 

As a Fellow Craft, he has advanced another step, and 
as the degree is emblematic of youth, so it is here that the 
intellectual education of the candidate begins. And 
therefore, here, at the very spot which separates the 
Porch from the Sanctuary, where childhood ends and 
manhood begins, he finds stretching out before him a 
winding stair which invites him, as it were, to ascend, 
and which, as the symbol of discipline and instruction, 
teaches him that here must commence his masonic labor 
— here he must enter upon those glorious though difficult 
researches, the end of which is to be the possession of 
divine truth. The Winding Stairs begin after the candi- 
date has passed within the Porch and between the pillars 



THE WINDING STAIRS. 219 

of Strength and Establishment, as a significant symbol 
to teach him that as soon as he has passed beyond the 
years of irrational childhood, and commenced his entrance 
upon manly life, the laborious task of self-improvement 
is the first duty that is placed before him. He cannot 
stand still, if he would be worthy of his vocation ; hisses- 
tiny as an immortal being requires him to ascend, step by 
step, until he has reached the summit, where the treasures 
of knowledge await him. 

The number of these steps in all the systems has been 
odd. Vitruvius remarks — and the coincidence is at least 
curious — that the ancient temples were always ascended 
by an odd number of steps ; and he assigns as the reason, 
that, commencing with the right foot at the bottom, the 
worshipper would find the same foot foremost when he 
entered the temple, which was considered as a fortunate 
omen. But the fact is, that the symbolism of numbers 
was borrowed by the Masons from Pythagoras, in whose 
system of philosophy it plays an important part, and in 
which odd numbers were considered as more perfect than 
even ones. Hence, throughout the masonic system we 
find a predominance of odd numbers ; and while three, 
five, seven, nine, fifteen, and twenty-seven, are all-impor- 
tant symbols, we seldom find a reference to two, four, 
six, eight, or ten. The odd number of the stairs was 
therefore intended to symbolize the idea of perfection, to 
which it was the object of the aspirant to attain. 

As to the particular number of the stairs, this has varied 
at different periods. Tracing-boards of the last century 
have been found, in which only Jive steps are delineated, 
and others in which they amount to seven. The Presto- 
nian lectures, used in England in the beginning of this 



220 THE LEGEND OF 

century, gave the whole number as thirty-eight, dividing 
them into series of one, three, five, seven, nine, and 
eleven. The error of making an even number, which 
was a violation of the Pythagorean principle of odd num- 
bers as the symbol of perfection, was corrected in the 
Hemming lectures, adopted at the union of the two Grand 
Lodges of England, by striking out the eleven, which was 
also objectionable as receiving a sectarian explanation. 
In this country the number was still further reduced to 
fifteen, divided into three series of three, five, and seven. 
I shall adopt this American division in explaining the 
symbolism, although, after all, the particular number 
of the steps, or the peculiar method of their division into 
series, will not in any way affect the general symbolism 
of the whole legend. 

The candidate, then, in the second degree of Masonry, 
represents a man starting forth on the journey of life, 
with the great task before him of self-improvement. For 
the faithful performance of this task, a reward is promised, 
which reward consists in the development of all his intel- 
lectual faculties, the moral and spiritual elevation of his 
character, and the acquisition of truth and knowledge. 
Now, the attainment of this moral and intellectual condi- 
tion supposes an elevation of character, an ascent from a 
lower to a higher life, and a passage of toil and difficulty, 
through rudimentary instruction, to the full fruition of 
wisdom. This is therefore beautifully symbolized by the 
Winding Stairs ; at whose foot the aspirant stands ready 
to climb the toilsome steep, w 7 hile at its top is placed 
" that hieroglyphic bright which none but Craftsmen ever 
saw," as the emblem of divine truth. And hence a dis- 
tinguished writer has said that " these steps, like all the 



THE WINDING STAIRS. 221 

masonic symbols, are illustrative of discipline and doc- 
trine, as well as of natural, mathematical, and metaphys- 
ical science, and open to us an extensive range of moral 
and speculative inquiry." 

The candidate, incited by the love of virtue and the 
desire of knowledge, and withal eager for the reward of 
truth which is set before him, begins at once the toilsome 
ascent. x\t each division he pauses to gather instruction 
from the symbolism which these divisions present to his 
attention. 

At the first pause which he makes he is instructed in 
the peculiar organization of the order of which he has 
become a disciple. But the information here given, if 
taken in its naked, literal sense, is barren, and unworthy 
of his labor. The rank of the officers who govern, and 
the names of the degrees which constitute the institution, 
can give him no knowledge which he has not before pos- 
sessed. We must look therefore to the symbolic meaning 
of these allusions for any value which may be attached 
to this part of the ceremony. 

The reference to the organization of the masonic insti- 
tution is intended to remind the aspirant of the union of 
men in society, and the development of the social state 
out of the state of nature. He is thus reminded, in the 
very outset of his journey, of the blessings which arise 
from civilization, and of the fruits of virtue and knowl- 
edge which are derived from that condition. Masonry 
itself is the result of civilization ; while, in grateful return, 
it has been one of the most important means of extending 
that condition of mankind. 

All the monuments of antiquity that the ravages of 
time have left, combine to prove that man had no sooner 



222 THE LEGEND OF 

emerged from the savage into the social state, than he 
commenced the organization of religious mysteries, and 
the separation, by a sort of divine instinct, of the sacred 
from the profane. Then came the invention of architec- 
ture as a means of providing convenient dwellings and 
necessary shelter from the inclemencies and vicissitudes 
of the seasons, with all the mechanical arts connected 
with it ; and lastly, geometry, as a necessary science to 
enable the cultivators of land to measure and designate 
the limits of their possessions. All these are claimed as 
peculiar characteristics of Speculative Masonry, which 
may be considered as the type of civilization, the former 
bearing the same relation to the profane world as the 
latter does to the savage state. Hence we at once see 
the fitness of the symbolism which commences the aspi- 
rant's upward progress in the cultivation of knowledge 
and the search after truth, by recalling to his mind the 
condition of civilization and the social union of mankind 
as necessary preparations for the attainment of these 
objects. In the allusions to the officers of a lodge, and 
the degrees of Masonry as explanatory of the organization 
of our own society, we clothe in our symbolic language 
the history of the organization of society. 

Advancing in his progress, the candidate is invited to 
contemplate another series of instructions. The human 
senses, as the appropriate channels through which we 
receive all our ideas of perception, and which, therefore, 
constitute the most important sources of our knowledge, 
are here referred to as a symbol of intellectual cultivation. 
Architecture, as the most important of the arts which 
conduce to the comfort of mankind, is also alluded to 
here, not simply because it is so closely connected with 



THE WINDING STAIRS. 223 

the operative institution of Masonry, but also as the type 
of all the other useful arts. In his second pause, in the 
ascent of the Winding Stairs, the aspirant is therefore 
reminded of the necessity of cultivating practical knowl- 
edge. 

So far, then, the instructions he has received relate to 
his own condition in society as a member of the great 
social compact, and to his means of becoming, by a 
knowledge of the arts of practical life, a necessary and 
useful member of that society. 

But his motto will be, u Excelsior." Still must he go 
onward and forward. The stair is still before him ; its 
summit is not yet reached, and still further treasures of 
wisdom are to be sought for, or the reward will not be 
gained,, nor the middle chamber, the abiding place of 
truth, be reached. 

In his third pause, he therefore arrives at that point in 
which the whole circle of human science is to be explained. 
Symbols, we know, are in themselves arbitrary and of 
conventional signification, and the complete circle of 
human science might have been as well symbolized by 
any other sign or series of doctrines as by the seven 
liberal arts and sciences. But Masonry is an institution 
of the olden time ; and this selection of the liberal arts 
and sciences as a symbol of the completion of human 
learning is one of the most pregnant evidences that we 
have of its antiquity. 

In the seventh century, and for a long time afterwards, 
the circle of instruction to which all the learning of the 
most eminent schools and most distinguished philosophers 
was confined, was limited to what were then called the 
liberal arts and sciences, and consisted of two branches, . 



224 THE LEGEND OF 

the trivium and the quadrivium.* The trivium included 
grammar, rhetoric, and logic; the quadrivium compre- 
hended arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. 

" These seven heads," says Enfield, " were supposed to 
include universal knowledge. He who was master of 
these was thought to have no need of a preceptor to ex- 
plain any books or to solve any questions which lay with- 
in the compass of human reason, the knowledge of the 
trivium having furnished him with the key to all lan- 
guage, and that of the quadrivium having opened to him 
the secret laws of nature." f 

At a period, says the same writer, when few were in- 
structed in the trivium, and very few studied the quad- 
rivium, to be master of both was sufficient to complete the 
character of a philosopher. The propriety, therefore, of 
adopting the seven liberal arts and sciences as a symbol 
of the completion of human learning is apparent. The 
candidate, having reached this point, is now supposed to 
have accomplished the task upon which he had entered 
— he has reached the last step, and is now ready to re- 
ceive the full fruition of human learning. 

So far, then, we are able to comprehend the true 
symbolism of the Winding Stairs. They represent the 
progress of an inquiring mind with the toils and labors 
of intellectual cultivation and study, and the preparatory 

* The words themselves are purely classical, but the meanings 
here given to them are of a mediaeval Or corrupt Latinity. Among 
the old Romans, a trivium meant a place where three ways met, 
and a quadrivium where four, or what we now call a cross-road. 
When we speak of the paths of learni?ig, we readily discover the 
origin of the signification given by the scholastic philosophers to 
these terms. 

t Hist, of Philos. vol. ii. p. 337. 



THE WINDING STAIRS. 



225 



acquisition of all human science, as a preliminary step to 
the attainment of divine truth, which it must be remem- 
bered is always symbolized in Masonry by the Word. 

Here let me again allude to the symbolism of num- 
bers, which is for the first time presented to the consid- 
eration of the masonic student in the legend of the 
Winding Stairs. The theory of numbers as the symbols 
of certain qualities was originally borrowed by the Ma- 
sons from the school of Pythagoras. It will be impossi- 
ble, however, to develop this doctrine, in its entire extent, 
on the present occasion, for the numeral symbolism of 
Masonry would itself constitute materials for an ample 
essay. It will be sufficient to advert to the fact that the 
total number of the steps, amounting in all to fifteen, in 
the American system, is a significant symbol. For fif- 
teen was a sacred number among the Orientals, because 
the letters of the holy name JAH, i"p, were, in their nu- 
merical value, equivalent to fifteen ; and hence a figure in 
which the nine digits were so disposed as to make fifteen 
either way when added together perpendicularly, horizon- 
tally, or diagonally, constituted one of their most sacred 
talismans.* The fifteen steps in the Winding Stairs are 
therefore symbolic of the name of God. 

But we are not yet done. It will be remembered that 

* Such a talisman was the following figure : — 



15 



8 


1 


6 


3 


5 


7 


4 


9 


2 



226 THE LEGEND OF 

a reward was promised for all this toilsome ascent of the 
Winding Stairs. Now, what are the wages of a Specu- 
lative Mason? Not money, nor corn, nor wine, nor oil. 
All these are but symbols. His wages are truth, or that 
approximation to it which will be most appropriate to the 
degree into whiclvhe has been initiated. It is one of the 
most beautiful, but at the same, time most abstruse, doc- 
trines of the science of masonic symbolism, that the Ma- 
son is ever to be in search of truth, but is never to find it. 
This divine truth, the object of all his labors, is symbol- 
ized b}' the Word, for which we all know he can only 
obtain a substitute ; and this is intended to teach the 
humiliating but necessary lesson that the knowledge of 
the nature of God and of man's relation to him, which 
knowledge constitutes divine truth, can never be acquired 
in this life. It is only when the portals of the grave open 
to us, and give us an entrance into a more perfect life, that 
this knowledge is to be attained. " Happy is the man," 
says the father of lyric poetry, " who descends beneath the 
hollow earth, having beheld these mysteries ; he knows 
the end, he knows the origin of life." 

The Middle Chamber is therefore symbolic of this life, 
where the symbol only of the word can be given, where 
the truth is to be reached by approximation only, and yet 
where we are to learn that that truth will consist in a per- 
fect knowledge of the G. A. O. T. U. This is the reward 
of the inquiring Mason ; in this consist the wages of a 
Fellow Craft ; he is directed to the truth, but must travel 
farther and ascend still higher to attain it. 

It is, then, as a symbol, and a symbol only, that we must 
study this beautiful legend of the Winding Stairs. If we 
attempt to adopt it as an historical fact, the absurdity of 



THE* WINDING STAIRS. 227 

its details stares us in the face, and wise men will wonder 
at our credulity. Its inventors had no desire thus to im- 
pose upon our folly ; but offering it to us as a great philo- 
sophical myth, they did not for a moment suppose that 
we would pass over its sublime moral teachings to accept 
the allegory as an historical narrative^ without meaning, 
and wholly irreconcilable with the records of Scripture, 
and opposed by all the principles of probability. To 
suppose that eighty thousand craftsmen were weekly paid 
in the narrow precincts of the temple chambers, is simply 
to suppose an absurdity. But to believe that all this pic- 
torial representation of an ascent by a Winding Staircase 
to the place where the wages of labor were to be received, 
was an allegory to teach us the ascent of the mind from 
ignorance, through all the toils of study and the difficulties 
of obtaining knowledge, receiving here a little and there 
a little, adding something to the stock of our ideas at each 
step, until, in the middle chamber of life, — in the full 
fruition of manhood, — the reward is attained, and the 
purified and elevated intellect is invested with the reward 
in the direction how to seek God and God's truth, — to 
believe this is to believe and to know the true design of 
Speculative Masonry, the only design which makes it 
worthy of a good or a wise man's study. 

Its historical details are barren, but its symbols and alle- 
gories are fertile with instruction. 




XXVII. 

THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 

/ JJP^'HE most important and significant of the legendary 
m\ symbols of Freemasonry is, undoubtedly, that 
^£_L/ which relates to the fate of Hiram Abif, com- 
monly called, " by way of excellence," the Legend of 
the Third Degree. 

The first written record that I have been able to find 
of this legend is contained in the second edition of An- 
derson's Constitutions, published in 1738, and is in these 
words : — 

" It (the temple) was finished in the short space of 
seven years and six months, to the amazement of all the 
world ; when the cape-stone was celebrated by the fra- 
ternity with great joy. But their joy was soon inter- 
rupted by the sudden death of their clear master, Hiram 
Abif, whom they decently interred, in the lodge near the 
temple, according to ancient usage." * 

In the next edition of the same work, published in 
1756, a few additional circumstances are related, such as 



* Anderson's Constitutions, 2d ed. 1738, p. 14. 



THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 229 

the participation of King Solomon in the general grief, 
and the fact that the king of Israel " ordered his ob- 
sequies to be conducted with great solemnity and decen- 
cy." * With these exceptions, and the citations of the 
same passages, made by subsequent authors, the narrative 
has always remained unwritten, and descended, from age 
to age, through the means of oral tradition. 

The legend has been considered of so much importance 
that it has been preserved in the symbolism of every 
masonic rite. No matter what modifications or altera- 
tions the general system may have undergone, — no mat- 
ter how much the ingenuity or the imagination of the 
founders of rites may have perverted or corrupted other 
symbols, abolishing the old and substituting new ones, — 
the legend of the Temple Builder has ever been left un- 
touched, to present itself in all the integrity of its ancient 
mythical form. 

What, then, is the signification of this symbol, so impor- 
tant and so extensively diffused? What interpretation 
can we give to it that will account for its universal adop- 
tion? How is it that it has thus become so intimately 
interwoven with Freemasonry as to make, to all appear- 
ances, a part of its very essence, and to have been always 
deemed inseparable from it? 

To answer these questions, satisfactorily, it is necessary 
to trace, in a brief investigation, the remote origin of the 
institution of Freemasonry, and' its connection with the 
ancient systems of initiation. 

It was, then, the great object of all the rites and mys- 
teries which constituted the " Spurious Freemasonry " 

* Anderson's Constitutions, 3d ed. 1756, p. 24. 



23O -THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 

of antiquity to teach the consoling doctrine of the irti mor- 
tality of the soul.* This dogma, shining as an almost 
solitary beacon-light in the surrounding gloom of pagan 
darkness, had undoubtedly been received from that ancient 
people or priesthood f who practised what has been called 
the system of " Pure Freemasonry," and among whom 
it probably existed only in the form of an abstract propo- 
sition or a simple and unembellished tradition. But in 
the more sensual minds of the pagan philosophers and 
mystics, the idea, when presented to the initiates in their 
Mysteries, was always conveyed in the form of a scenic 
representation.^ The influence, too, of the early Sabian 

* "The hidden doctrines of the unity of the Deity and the im- 
mortality of the soul were originally in all the Mysteries, even 
those of Cupid and Bacchus." — Warburton, in Spence's Anec- 
dotes, p. 309. 

t "The allegorical interpretation of the mj'ths has been, by 
several learned investigators, especially by Creuzer, connected 
with the hypothesis of an ancient and highly instructed body of 
priests, having their origin either in Egypt or in the East, and 
communicating to the rude and barbarous Greeks religious, physi- 
cal, and historical knowledge, under the veil of symbols." — Grote, 
Hist, of Greece, vol. i. ch. xvi. p. 579. — And the Chevalier Ram- 
say corroborates this theory: "Vestiges of the most sublime 
truths are to be found in the sages of all nations, times, and re- 
ligions, both sacred and profane, and these vestiges are emana- 
tions of the antediluvian and noevian tradition, more or less dis- 
guised and adulterated." — Philosophical Principles of Natter al and 
Revealed Religion unfoldedi?i a Geometrical Order, vol. I, p. iv. 

% Of this there is abundant evidence in all the ancient and 
modern writers on the Mysteries. Apuleius, cautiously describing 
his initiation into the Mysteries of Isis, says, " I approached the 
confines of death, and having trod on the threshold of Proserpine, 
I returned therefrom, being borne through all the elements. At 
midnight I saw the sun shining with its brilliant light; and I 
approached the presence of the gods beneath, and the gods of 
heaven, and stood near and worshipped them." — Metam. lib. xi. 
The context shows that all this was a scenic representation. 



THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 23 1 

worship of the sun and heavenly bodies, in which the 
solar orb was adored, on its resurrection, each morning, 
from the apparent death of its evening setting, caused 
this rising sun to be adopted in the more ancient Myste- 
ries as a symbol of the regeneration of the soul. 

Thus in the Egyptian Mysteries we find a representa- 
tion of the death and subsequent regeneration of Osiris ; 
in the Phoenician, of Adonis ; in the Syrian, of Dionysus ; 
in all of which the scenic apparatus of initiation was 
intended to indoctrinate the candidate into the dogma of 
a future life. 

It will be sufficient here to refer simply to the fact, that 
through the instrumentality of the Tyrian workmen at the 
temple of King Solomon, the spurious and pure branches 
of the masonic system were united at Jerusalem, and that 
the same method of scenic representation was adopted by 
the latter from the former, and the narrative of the tem- 
ple builder substituted for that of Dionysus, which was 
the myth peculiar to the mysteries practised by the 
Tyrian workmen. 

The idea, therefore, proposed to be communicated in 
the myth of the ancient Mysteries was the same as that 
which is now conveyed in the masonic legend of the Third 
Degree. 

Hence, then, Hiram Abif is, in the masonic system, the 
symbol of human nature, as developed in the life here 
and the life to come ; and so, while the temple was, as I 
have heretofore shown, the visible symbol of the world, 
its builder became the mythical symbol of man, the 
dweller and worker in that world. 1 

Now, is not this symbolism evident to every reflective 
mind? 



232 THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 

Man, setting forth on the voyage of life, with faculties 
and powers fitting him for the due exercise of the high 
duties to whose performance he has been called, holds, 
if he be " a curious and cunning workman," * skilled 
in all moral and intellectual purposes (and it is only 
of such men that the temple builder can be the symbol), 
within the grasp of his attainment the knowledge of 
all that divine truth imparted to him as the heirloom 
of his race — that race to whom it has been granted to 
look, with exalted countenance, on high ; f which divine 
truth is symbolized by the Word. 

Thus provided with the word of life, he occupies his 
time in the construction of a spiritual temple, and travels 
onward in the faithful discharge of all his duties, laying 
down his designs upon the trestle-board of the future and 
invoking the assistance and direction of God. 

But is his path always over flowery meads and through 
pleasant groves? Is there no hidden foe to obstruct his 
progress? Is all before him clear and calm, with joyous 
sunshine and refreshing zephyrs? Alas! not so. " Man 
is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward." At every 

* Aish haham iodea bhiah, " a cunning man, endued with under- 
standing," is the description given by the king of Tyre of .Hiram 
Abif. See 2 Chron. ii. 13. It is needless to say that "cunning" 
is a good old Saxon word meaning skilful. 

f " Pronaque cum spectent animalia csetera terrain; 
Os homini sublime dedit : ccelumque tueri 
Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus." 

Ovid, Met. \. 84. 
"Thus, while the mute creation downward bend 
Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend, 
Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes 
Beholds his own hereditary skies." 

Dryden. 



THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 233 

" gate of life " — as the Orientalists have beautifully called 
the different ages — he is beset by peril. Temptations 
allure his youth, misfortunes darken the pathway of his 
manhood, and his old age is encumbered with infirmity 
and disease. But clothed in the armor of virtue he may 
resist the temptation ; he may cast misfortunes aside, and 
rise triumphantly above them ; but to the last, the direst, 
the most inexorable foe of his race, he must eventually 
yield ; and stricken down by death, he sinks prostrate into 
the grave, and is buried in the rubbish of his sin and 
human frailty. 

Here, then, in Masonry, is what was called the apha- 
nism * in the ancient Mysteries. The bitter but necessary 
lesson of death has been imparted. The living soul, 
with the lifeless body which encased^t, has disappeared, 
and can nowhere be found. All is darkness- — confusion 
— despair. Divine truth — the Word — for a time is 
lost, and the Master Mason may now say, in the language 
of Hutchinson, " I prepare my sepulchre. I make my 
grave in the pollution of the earth. I am under the 
shadow of death." 

But if the mythic symbolism ended here, with this 
lesson of death, then were the lesson incomplete. That 
teaching would be vain and idle — nay, more, it would be 
corrupt and pernicious — which should stop short of the 
conscious and innate instinct for another existence. And 
hence the succeeding portions of the legend are intended 
to convey the sublime symbolism of a resurrection from 
the grave and a new birth into a future life. The discov- 

*^ li '^4cpavia/nbg, disappearance, destruction, a perishing, death, 
from dcpurl^o), to remove from one's view, to conceal," &c. — 
Schrevel. Lex. 



234 THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 

ery of the body, which, in the initiations of the ancient 
Mysteries, was called the euresis,* and its removal, from 
the polluted grave into which it had been cast, to an hon- 
ored and sacred place within the precincts of the temple, 
are all profoundly and beautifully symbolic of that great 
truth, the discovery of which was the object of all the 
ancient initiations, as it is almost the whole design of 
Freemasonry, namely, that when man shall have passed 
the gates of life and have yielded to the inexorable fiat 
of death, he shall then (not in the pictured ritual of an 
earthly lodge, but in the realities of that eternal one, of 
which the former is but an antitype) be raised, at the 
omnific word of the Grand Master of the Universe, from 
time to eternity ; from the tomb of corruption to the 
chambers of hope ; from the darkness of death to the 
celestial beams of life ; and that his disembodied spirit 
shall be conveyed as near to the holy of holies of the 
divine presence as humanity can ever approach to Deity. 

Such I conceive to be the true interpretation of the 
symbolism of the legend of the Third Degree. 

I have said that this mythical history of the temple 
builder was universal in all nations and all rites, and that 
in no place and at no time had it, by alteration, diminu- 
tion, or addition, acquired any essentially new or different 
form : the myth has always remained the same. 

But it is not so with its interpretation. That which I 
have just given, and which I conceive to be the correct 
one, has been very generally adopted by the Masons of 
this country. But elsewhere, and by various writers, other 
interpretations have been made, very different in their 

* " Evoeaig, a finding, invention, discovery." — SchreveU Lex. 



THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 235 

character, although always agreeing in retaining the gen- 
eral idea of a resurrection or regeneration, or a restoration 
of something from an inferior to a higher sphere or func- 
tion. 

Thus some of the earlier continental writers have sup- 
posed the myth to have been a symbol of the destruction 
of the Order of the Templars, looking upon its restora- 
tion to its original wealth and dignities as being propheti- 
cally symbolized. 

In some of the high philosophical degrees it is taught 
that the whole legend refers to the sufferings and death, 
with the subsequent resurrection, of Christ.* 

Hutchinson, who has the honor of being the earliest 
philosophical writer on Freemasonry in England, sup- 
poses it to have been intended to embody the idea of the 
decadence of the Jewish religion, and the substitution of 
the Christian in its place and on its ruins. f 

Dr. Oliver — " clarum et venerabile nomen " — thinks 
that it is typical of the murder of Abel by Cain, and that 
it symbolically refers to the universal death of our race 
through Adam, and its restoration to life in the Redeemer,^ 

* A French writer of the last century, speaking of the degree 
of " Tres Parfait Maitre," says, " C'est ici qu'on voit reellement 
qu'Hiram n'a ete que le type de Jesus Christ, que le temple et les 
autres symboles ma^onniques sont des allegories relatives a l'Eglise, 
a la Foi, et aux bonnes mceurs." — Originc et Objet de la Franche- 
?naqonnerie, par le F. B. Paris, 1774. 

t " This our order is a positive contradiction to the Judaic 
blindness and infidelity, and testifies our faith concerning the res- 
urrection of the body." — Hutchinsox, Spirit of Masonry, lect. 
ix. p. 101. — The whole lecture is occupied in advancing and sup- 
porting his peculiar theory. 

% " Thus, then, it appears that the historical reference of the 
legend of Speculative Freemasonry, in all ages of the world, was — 



236 THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. . 

according to the expression of the apostle, " As in Adam 
we all died, so in Christ we all live." 

,Ragon makes Hiram a symbol of the sun shorn of its 
vivifying rays and fructifying power by the three winter 
months, and its restoration to generative heat by the sea- 
son of spring.* 

And, finally, Des Etangs, adopting, in part, the inter- 
pretation of Ragon, adds to it another, which he calls the 
moral symbolism of the legend, and supposes that Hiram 
is no other than eternal reason, whose enemies are the 
vices that deprave and destroy humanity. | 

To each of these interpretations it seems to me that 
there are important objections, though perhaps to some 
less so than to others. 

As to those who seek for an astronomical interpretation 
of the legend, in which the annual changes of the sun are 
symbolized, while the ingenuity with which they press 
their argument cannot but be admired, it is evident that, 
by such an interpretation, they yield all that Masonry has 

to our death in Adam and life in Christ. What, then, was the 
origin of our tradition? Or, in other words, to what particular 
incident did the legend of initiation refer before the flood? I con- 
ceive it to have been the offering and assassination of Abel by his 
brother Cain; the escape of the murderer; the discovery of the 
body by his disconsolate parents, and its subsequent interment, 
under a certain belief of its final resurrection from the dead, and 
of the detection and punishment of Cain by divine vengeance." — 
Oliver, Historical Landmarks of Free?nasonry, vol. ii. p. 171. 

* " Le grade de Maitre va done nous retracer allegoriquement 
la mort du dieti-lumicre — mourant en hiver pour reparaitre et 
ressusciter an printemps." — Ragon, Cours Philos. et Inlerfi. des 
Jnit. p. 158. 

f " Dans l'ordre moral, Hiram n'est autre chose que la raison 
eternelle, par qui tout est pondere, regie, conserve." — Des Etangs, 
CEuvres Magonniaues, p. 90. 



THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 237 

gained of religious development in past ages, and fall 
back upon that corruption and perversion of Sabaism 
from which it was the object, even of the Spurious Free- 
masonry of antiquity, to rescue its disciples. ' 

The Templar interpretation of the myth must at once 
be discarded if we would avoid the difficulties of anach- 
ronism, unless we deny that the legend existed before 
the abolition of the Order of Knights Templar, and such 
denial would be fatal to the antiquity of Freemasonry.* 

And as to the adoption of the Christian reference, Hutch- 
inson, and after him Oliver, profoundly philosophical as 
are the masonic speculations of both, have, I am con- 
strained to believe, fallen into a great error in calling the 
Master Mason's degree a Christian institution. It is true 
that it embraces within its scheme the great truths of 
Christianity upon the subject of the immortality of the 
soul and the resurrection of the body ; but this was to be 
presumed, because Freemasonry is truth, and Christianity 
is truth, and all truth must be identical. But the origin 
of each is different ; their histories are dissimilar. The 
institution of Freemasonry preceded the advent of Chris- 
tianity. Its symbols and its legends are derived from the 
Solomonic temple, and from the people even anterior to 
that. Its religion comes from the ancient priesthood. Its 
faith was that primitive one of Noah and his immediate 
descendants. If Masonry were simply a Christian insti- 
tution, the Jew and the Moslem, the Brahmin and the 
Buddhist, could not conscientiously partake of its illumina- 

* With the same argument would I meet the hypothesis that 
Hiram was the representative of Charles I. of England — an 
hypothesis now so generally abandoned, that I have not thought 
it worth noticing in the text. 



23S THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 

tion ; but its universality is its boast. In its language 
citizens of every nation may converse ; at its altar men 
of all religions may kneel ; to its creed disciples of every 
faith may subscribe. 

Yet it cannot be denied, that since the advent of Chris- 
tianity a Christian element has been almost imperceptibly 
infused into the masonic system, at least among Christian 
Masons. This has been a necessity ; for it is the tendency 
of every predominant religion to pervade with its influ- 
ences all that surrounds it, or is about it, whether religious, 
political, or social. This arises from a need of the human 
heart. To the man deeply imbued with the spirit of his 
religion there is an almost unconscious desire to accom- 
modate and adapt all the business and the amusements 
of life, the labors and the employments of his every-day 
existence, to the indwelling faith of his soul. 

The Christian Mason, therefore, while acknowledging 
and justly appreciating the great doctrines taught in Ma- 
sonry, and while grateful that these doctrines were pre- 
served in the bosom of his ancient order at a time when 
they were unknown to the multitudes of the surrounding 
nations, is still anxious to give to them a Christian 
character, to invest them, in some measure, with the 
peculiarities of his own creed, and to bring the interpre- 
tation of their symbolism more nearly home to his own 
religious sentiments. 

The feeling is an instinctive one, belonging to the 
noblest aspirations of our human nature ; and hence we 
find Christian masonic writers indulging in it almost to 
an unwarrantable excess, and by the extent of their secta- 
rian interpretations materially affecting the cosmopolitan 
character of the institution. 



THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 239 

This tendency to Christianization has, in some instances, 
been so universal, and has prevailed for so long a period, 
that certain symbols and myths have been, in this way, so 
deeply and thoroughly imbued with the Christian element 
as to leave those who have not penetrated into the cause 
of this peculiarity, in doubt whether they should attrib- 
ute to the symbol an ancient or a modern and Christian 
origin. 

As an illustration of the idea here advanced, and as a 
remarkable example of the result of a gradually Chris- 
tianized interpretation of a masonic symbol, I will refer 
to the subordinate myth (subordinate, I mean, to the great 
legend of the Builder), which relates the circumstances 
connected with the grave upon " the brow of a small hill 
near Mount Moriah" 

Now, the myth or legend of a grave is a legitimate de- 
duction from the symbolism of the ancient Spurious Ma- 
sonry. It is the analogue of the Pastos, Couch, or Coffin, 
which was to be found in the ritual of all the pagan Mys- 
teries. In all these initiations, the aspirant was placed 
in a cell or upon a couch, in darkness, and for a period 
varying, in the different rites, from the three days of the 
Grecian Mysteries to the fifty of the Persian. This cell 
or couch, technically called the " pastos," was adopted 
as a symbol of the being whose death and resurrection 
or apotheosis, was represented in the legend. 

The learned Faber says that this ceremony was doubt- 
less the same as the descent into Hades,* and that, when 
the aspirant entered into the mystic cell, he was directed 

* "The initiation into the Mysteries," he says, " scenically rep- 
resented the mythic descent into Hades and the return from 
thence to the light of day ; by which was meant the entrance into 



24O THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 

to lay himself down upon the bed which shadowed out 
the tomb of the Great Father, or Noah, to whom, it will 
be recollected, that Faber refers all the ancient rites. 
" While stretched upon the holy couch," he continues to 
remark, " in imitation of his figurative deceased proto- 
type, he was said to be wrapped in the deep sleep of 
death. His resurrection from the bed was his restoration 
to life or his regeneration into a new world." 

Now, it is easy to see how readily such a symbolism 
would be seized by the Temple Masons, and appropriated 
at once to the grave at the brow of the kill. At first, the 
interpretation, like that from which it had been derived, 
would be cosmopolitan ; it would fit exactly to the gen- 
eral dogmas of the resurrection of the body and the im- 
mortality of the soul. 

But on the advent of Christianity, the spirit of the new 
religion being infused into the old masonic system, the 
whole symbolism of the grave was affected by it. The 
same interpretation of a resurrection or restoration to life, 
derived from the ancient " pastos," was, it is true, pre- 
served ; but the facts that Christ himself had come to 
promulgate to the multitudes the same consoling dogma, 
and that Mount Calvary, " the place of a skull," was the 
spot where the Redeemer, by his own death and resur- 

the Ark and the subsequent liberation from its dark enclosure. 
Such Mysteries were established in almost every part of the pagan 
world; and those of Ceres were substantially the same as the 
Orgies of Adonis, Osiris, Hu, Mithras, and the Cabiri. They all 
equally related to the allegorical disappearance, or death, or 
descent of the great father at their commencement, and to his 
invention, or revival, or return from Hades, at their conclusion." 
— Origin of Pa.ga.7t Idolatry, vol. iv. b. iv. ch. v. p. 384 — But 
this Arkite theory, as it is called, has not met with the general ap- 
probation of subsequent writers. 



1 



THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 24 1 

rection, had testified the truth of the doctrine, at once 
suggested to the old Christian Masons the idea of Chris- 
tianizing the ancient symbol. 

Let us now examine briefly how that idea has been at 
length developed. 

In the first place, it is necessary to identify the spot 
where the " newly-made grave " was discovered with 
Mount Calvary, the place of the sepulchre of Christ. 
This can easily be done by a very few but striking analo- 
gies, which will, I conceive, carry conviction to any 
thinking mind. 

1. Mount Calvary was a small hill.* 

2. It was situated in a westward direction from the 
temple, and near Mount Moriah. 

3. It was on the direct road from Jerusalem to Joppa, 
and is thus the very spot where a weary brother, travel- 
ling on that road, would find it convenient to sit down to 
rest and refresh himself .\ 

* Mount Calvary is a small hill or eminence, situated in a 
westerly direction from that Mount Moriah on which the temple 
of Solomon was built. It was originally a hillock of notable 
eminence, but has, in modern times, been greatly reduced by the 
excavations made in it for the construction of the Church of the 
Holy Sepulchre. Buckingham, in his Palestine, p. 283, says, 
" The present rock, called Calvary, and enclosed within the Church 
of the Holy Sepulchre, bears marks, in every part that is naked, 
of its having been a round nodule of rock standing above the com- 
mon level of the surface." 

f Dr. Beard, in the art. " Golgotha,'* in Kitto's Encyc. of Bib. 
Lit., reasons in a similar method as to the place of the crucifixion, 
and supposing that the soldiers, from the fear of a popular tumult, 
would hurry Jesus to the most convenient spot for execution, says, 
"Then the road to Joppa or Damascus would be most convenient, 
and no spot in the vicinity would probably be so suitable as the 
slight rounded elevation which bore the name of Calvary." 

16 



242 THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 

4. It was outside the gate of the temple. 

5. It has at least one cleft in the rock, or cave, which 
was the place which subsequently became the sepulchre 
of our Lord. But this coincidence need scarcely to be 
insisted on, since the whole neighborhood abounds in 
rocky clefts, which meet at once the conditions of the 
masonic legend. 

But to bring this analogical reasoning before the mind 
in a more expressive mode, it may be observed that if a 
party of persons were to start forth from the temple at 
Jerusalem, and travel in a westward direction towards the 
port of Joppa, Mount Calvary would be the first hill met 
with ; and as it may possibly have been used as a place 
of sepulture, which its name of Golgotha * seems to im- 
port, we may suppose it to have been the very spot alluded 
to in the Third Degree, as the place where the craftsmen, 
on their way to Joppa, discovered the evergreen acacia. 

Having thus traced the analogy, let us look a little to 
the symbolism. 

Mount Calvary has always retained an important place 
in the legendary history of Freemasonry, and there are 
many traditions connected with it that are highly interest- 
ing in their import. 

One of these traditions is, that it was the burial-place 
of Adam, in order, says the old legend, that where he 
lay, who effected the ruin of mankind, there also might 
the Savior of the world suffer, die, and be buried. Sir 
R. Torkington, who published a pilgrimage to Jerusalem 
in 15 1 7, says that " under the Mount of Calvary is another 

* Some have supposed that it was so called because it was the 
place of public execution. Gulgoleth in Hebrew, or gogultho in 
Syriac, means a skull. 



THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 243 

chapel of our Blessed Lady and St. John the Evangelist, 
that was called Golgotha ; and there, right under the 
mortise of the cross, was found the head of our forefather, 
Adam." * Golgotha, it will be remembered, means, in 
Hebrew, " the place of a skull ; " and there may be some 
connection between this tradition and the name of Gol- 
gotha, by which the Evangelists inform us, that in the 
time of Christ Mount Calvary was known. Calvary, or 
Calvaria, has the same signification in Latin. 

Another tradition states, that it was in the bowels of 
Mount Calvary that Enoch erected his nine-arched vault, 
and deposited on the foundation-stone of Masonry that 
Ineffable Name, whose investigation, as a symbol of 
divine truth, is the great object of Speculative Masonry. 

A third tradition details the subsequent discovery of 
Enoch's deposit by King Solomon, whilst making exca- 
vations in Mount Calvary, during the building of the 
temple. 

On this hallowed spot was Christ the Redeemer slain 
and buried. It was there that, rising on the third day 
from his sepulchre, he gave, by that act, the demonstra- 
tive evidence of the resurrection of the body and the 
immortality of the soul. 

And it was on this spot that the same great lesson 
was taught in Masonry — the same sublime truth — the 
development of which evidently forms the design of the 
Third or Master Mason's degree. 

There is in these analogies a sublime beauty as well as 
a wonderful coincidence between the two systems of 
Masonry and Christianity, that must, at an early period, 
have attracted the attention of the Christian Masons. 

* Quoted in Oliver, Landmarks, vol. i. p. 587, note. 



244 THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 

Mount Calvary is consecrated to the Christian as the 
place where his crucified Lord gave the last great proof 
of the second life, and fully established the doctrine of the 
resurrection which he had come to teach. It was the 
sepulchre of him 

" Who captive led captivity, 
Who robbed the grave of victory, 
And took the sting from death." 

It is consecrated to the Mason, also, as the scene of the 
euresis, the place of the discovery, where the same con- 
soling doctrines of the resurrection of the body and the 
immortality of the soul are_shadowed forth in profoundly 
symbolic forms. 

These great truths constitute the very essence of Chris- 
tianity, in which it differs from and excels all religious 
systems that preceded it ; they constitute, also, the end, 
aim, and object of all Freemasonry, but more especially 
that of the Third Degree, whose peculiar legend, symboli- 
cally considered, teaches nothing more nor less than that 
there is an immortal and better part within us, which, as 
an emanation from that divine spirit which pervades all 
nature, can never die. 

The identification of the spot on which this divine truth 
was promulgated in both systems — the Christian and 
the Masonic — affords an admirable illustration of the 
readiness with which the religious spirit of the former 
may be infused into the symbolism of the latter. And 
hence Hutchinson, thoroughly imbued with these Chris- 
tian views of Masonry, has called the Master Mason's 
order a Christian degree, and thus Christianizes the whole 
symbolism of its mythical history. 



THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 245 

" The Great Father of all, commiserating the miseries 
of the world, sent his only Son, who was innocence itself, 
to teach the doctrine of salvation — by whom man was 
raised from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness 
— from the tomb of corruption unto the chamber of hope — 
from the darkness of despair to the celestial beams of faith ; 
and not only working for us this redemption, but making 
with us the covenant of regeneration ; whence we are 
become the children of the Divinity, and inheritors of the 
realms of heaven. 

" We, Masoiis, describing the deplorable estate of re- 
ligion under the Jewish law, speak in figures : t Her tomb 
was in the rubbish and filth cast forth of the temple, and 
acacia Wove its branches over her monuments ; akakia 
being the Greek word for innocence, or being free from 
sin ; implying that the sins and corruptions of the old law, 
and devotees of the Jewish altar, had hid Religion from 
those who sought her, and she was only to be found where 
innoce?zce survived, and under the banner of the Divine 
Lamb, and, as to ourselves, professing that we were to be 
distinguished by our Acacy, or as true A.cacia7is in our 
religious faiths and tenets. 

"The acquisition of the doctrine of redemption is 'ex- 
pressed in the typical character of Huramen (I have 
found it. — Greek), and by the applications of that name 
with Masons, it is implied that we have discovered the 
knowledge of God and his salvation, and have been re- 
deemed from the death of sin and the sepulchre of pollu- 
tion and unrighteousness. 

" Thus the Master Mason represents a man, under the 
Christian doctrine, saved from the grave of iniquity and 
raised to the faith of salvation." 



246 THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 

It is in this way that Masonry has, by a sort of inevita- 
ble process (when we look to the religious sentiment of 
the interpreters), been Christianized by some of the most 
illustrious and learned writers on masonic science — by 
such able men as Hutchinson and Oliver in England, and 
by Harris, by Scott, by Salem Towne, and by several oth- 
ers in this country. 

I do not object to the system when the interpretation 
is not strained, but is plausible, consistent, and productive 
of the same results as in the instance of Mount Calvary : 
all that I contend for is, that such interpretations are 
modern, and that they do not belong to, although they 
may often be deduced from, the ancient system. 

But the true ancient interpretation of the legend, — the 
universal masonic one, — for all countries and all ages, 
undoubtedly was, that the fate of the temple builder is but 
figurative of the pilgrimage of man on earth, through 
trials and temptations, through sin and sorrow, until his 
eventual fall beneath the blow' of death and his final and 
glorious resurrection to another and an eternal life. 




XXVIII. 



THE SPRIG OF ACACIA. 




'NTIMATELY connected with the legend of the 
third degree is the mythical history of the Sprig 
of Acacia, which we are now to consider. 

There is no symbol more interesting to the 
masonic student than the Sprig of Acacia, not only on 
account of its own peculiar import, but also because it 
introduces us to an extensive and delightful field of 
research ; that, namely, which embraces the symbolism 
of sacred plants. In all the ancient systems of religion, 
and Mysteries of initiation, there was always some one 
plant consecrated, in the minds of the worshippers and 
participants, by a peculiar symbolism, and therefore held 
in extraordinary veneration as a sacred emblem. Thus 
the ivy was used in the Mysteries of Dionysus, the myrtle 
in those of Ceres, the erica in the Osirian, and the lettuce 
in the Adonisian. But to this subject I shall have occa- 
sion to refer more fully in a subsequent part of the present 
investigation. 

Before entering upon an examination of the symbolism 



248 THE SPRIG OF ACACIA. 

of the Acacia, it will be, perhaps, as well to identify the 
true plant which occupies so important a place in the 
ritual of Freemasonry. 

And here, in passing, I may be permitted to say that it 
is a very great error to designate the symbolic plant of 
Masonry by the name of " Cassia " — an error which 
undoubtedly arose, originally, from the very common 
habit among illiterate people of sinking the sound of the 
letter a in the pronunciation of any word of which it con- 
stitutes the initial syllable. Just, for instance, as we con- 
stantly hear, in the conversation of the uneducated, the 
words fothecary and prentice for apothecary and appreii- 
tice, shall we also find cassia used for acacia.* Unfor- 
tunately, however, this corruption of acacia into cassia 
has not always been confined to the illiterate : but the 
long employment of the corrupted form has at length 
introduced it, in some instances, among a few of our 
writers. Even the venerable Oliver, although well ac- 
quainted with the symbolism of the acacia, and having 
writen most learnedly upon it, has, at times, allowed him- 
self to use the objectionable corruption, unwittingly influ- 
enced, in all probability, by the too frequent adoption of 
the latter word in the English lodges. In America, but 
few Masons fall into the error of speaking of the Cassia. 
The proper teaching of the Acacia is here well under- 
stood, f 

* Oliver's idea (Landmarks, ii. 149) that cassia has, since the 
jear 1730, been corrupted into acacia, is contrary to all etymologi- 
cal experience. Words are corrupted, not by lengthening, but by 
abbreviating them. The uneducated and the careless are always 
prone to cut off a syllable, not to add a new one. 

f And yet I have been surprised by seeing, once or twice, the 
word "Cassia" adopted as the name of a lodge. "Cinnamon" 



THE SPRIG OF ACACIA. 249 

The cassia of the ancients was, in fact, an ignoble plant, 
having no mystic meaning and no sacred character, and 
was never elevated to a higher function than that of being 
united, as Virgil informs us, with other odorous herbs in 
the formation of a garland : — 

" . . . violets pale, 
The poppy's flush, and dill which scents the gale, 
Cassia, and hyacinth, and daffodil, 
With yellow mangold the chaplet fill." * 

Alston says that the " Cassia lignea of the ancients was 
the larger branches of the cinnamon tree, cut off with their 
bark and sent together to the druggists ; their Cassia fistu-" 
la, or Syrinx, was the same cinnamon in the bark only ; " 
but Ruaeus says that it also sometimes denoted the laven- 
der, and sometimes the rosemary. 

In Scripture the cassia is only three times mentioned,f 
twice as the translation of the Hebrew word kiddak, and 
once as the rendering of ketzioth, but always as referring 
to an aromatic plant which formed a constituent portion 
of some perfume. There is, indeed, strong reason for 
believing that the cassia is only another name for a coarser 
preparation of cinnamon, and it is also to be remarked 
that it did not grow in Palestine, but was imported from 
the East. 

or " sandal wood " would have been as appropriate, for anj r ma- 
sonic meaning or symbolism. 
* Eclog. ii. 49. 

" Pallentes violas et summa papavera carpens, 
Narcissum et florem jungit bene olentis anethi : 
Turn casia, atque aliis intexens suavibus herbis, 
Mollia luteola pingit vaccinia caltha." 
f Exod. xxx. 24, Ezek. xxvii. 9, and Ps. xlv. 8. 



25O THE SPRIG OF ACACIA. 

The acacia, on the contrary, was esteemed a sacred 
tree. It is the acacia vera of Tournefort, and the ?nimosa 
nilotica of Linnaeus. It grew abundantly in the vicinity 
of Jerusalem,* where it is still to be found, and is familiar 
to us all, in its modern uses at least, as the tree from which 
the gum arabic of commerce is obtained. 

The acacia, which, in Scripture, is always called shit- 
tah,\ and in the plural shittim, was esteemed a sacred 
wood among the Hebrews. Of it Moses was ordered to 
make the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, the table 
for the showbread, and the rest of the sacred furniture. 
Isaiah, in recounting the promises of God's mercy to the 
Israelites on their return from the captivity, tells them, 
that, among other things, he will plant in the wilderness, 
for their relief and refreshment, the cedar, the acacia (or, 
as it is rendered in our common version, the shittah), the 
fir, and other trees. 

* Oliver, it is true, says, that " there is not the smallest trace of 
any tree of the kind growing so far north as Jerusalem " (Landtn. 
ii. 136) ; but this statement is refuted by the authority of Lieutenant 
Lynch, who saw it growing in great abundance at Jericho, and 
still farther north. — Exflcd. to the Dead Sea, p. 262. — The Rabbi 
Joseph Schwarz, who is excellent authority, says, " The Acacia 
(Shittim) Tree, Al Sunt, is found in Palestine of different varieties ; 
it looks like the Mulberry tree, attains a great height, and has a 
hard wood. The gum which is obtained from it is the gum 
arabic." — Descriptive Geography and Historical Sketch of Pal- 
estine, p. 308, Leeser's translation. Phila., 1850. — Schwarz was 
for sixteen years a resident of Palestine, and wrote from personal 
observation. The testimony of Lynch and Schwarz should, there- 
fore, forever settle the question of the existence of the acacia in 
Palestine. 

f Calmet, Parkhurst, Gesenius, Clarke, Shaw, and all the best 
authorities, concur in saying that the otzi shiiti?n, or shittim 
wood of Exodus, was the common acacia or mimosa nilotica of 
Linnaeus. 



THE SPRIG OF ACACIA. 25 1 

The first thing, then, that we notice in this symbol of 
the acacia, is, that it had been always consecrated from 
among the other trees of the forest by the sacred purposes 
to which it was devoted. By the Jew the tree from whose 
wood the sanctuary of the tabernacle and the holy ark had 
been constructed would ever be viewed as more sacred 
than ordinary trees. 'The early Masons, therefore, very 
naturally appropriated this hallowed plant to the equally 
sacred purpose of a symbol which was to teach an im- 
portant divine truth in all ages to come. 

Having thus briefly disposed of the natural history of 
this plant, we may now proceed to examine it in its sym- 
bolic relations. 

First. The acacia, in the mythic system of Freemason- 
ry, is preeminently the symbol of the immortality of 
the soul — that important doctrine which it is the great 
design of the institution to teach. As the evanescent na- 
ture of the flower which " cometh forth and is cut dowrf" 
reminds us of the transitory nature of human life, so the 
perpetual renovation of the evergreen plant, which unin- 
terruptedly presents the appearance of youth and vigor, 
is aptly compared to that spiritual life in which the soul, 
freed from the corruptible companionship of the body, 
shall enjoy an eternal spring and an immortal youth. 
Hence, in the impressive funeral service of our order, it 
is said, " This evergreen is an emblem of our faith in 
the immortality of the soul. By this we are reminded 
that we have an immortal part within us, which shall sur- 
vive the grave, and which shall never, never, never die." 
And again, in the closing sentences of the monitorial 
lecture of the Third Degree, the same sentiment is repeat- 
ed, and we are told that by " the ever green and ever 



252 THE SPRIG OF ACACIA. 

living sprig" the Mason is strengthened " with confidence 
and composure to look forward to a blessed immortality. " 
Such an interpretation of the symbol is an easy and a 
natural one; it suggests itself at once to the least reflec- 
tive mind, and consequently, in some one form or anoth- 
er, is to be found existing in all ages and nations. It was 
an ancient custom, which is not, even now, altogether 
disused, for mourners to carry in their hands at funerals 
a sprig of some evergreen, generally the cedar or the 
cypress, and to deposit it in the grave of the deceased. 
According to Dalcho,* the Hebrews always planted a 
sprig of the acacia at the head of the grave of a departed 
friend. Potter tells us that the ancient Greeks " had a 
custom of bedecking tombs with herbs and flowers." f 
All sorts of purple and white flowers were acceptable to 
the dead, but principally the amaranth and the myrtle. 
The very name of the former of these plants, which sig- 
nifies " never fading," would seem to indicate the true 

* "This custom among the Hebrews arose from this circum- 
stance. Agreeably to their laws, no dead bodies were allowed to be 
interred within the walls of the city; and as the Cohens, or priests, 
were prohibited from crossing a grave, it was necessary to place 
marks thereon, that they might avoid them. For this purpose 
the acacia was used." — Dalcho, Oration, p. 27, note. — I object 
to the reason assigned by Dalcho; but of the existence of the 
custom there can be no question, notwithstanding the denial or 
doubt of Dr. Oliver. Blount {Travels in the Levant, p. 197) says, 
speaking of the Jewish burial customs, "those who bestow a mar- 
ble stone over any [grave] have a hole a yard long and a foot 
broad, in which they plant an evergreen, which seems to grow 
from the body, and is carefully watched." Hasselquist {Travels, 
p. 28) confirms his testimony. I borrow the citations from Brown 
{Antiquities of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 356), but have verified the 
reference to Hasselquist. The work of Blount I have not been 
enabled to consult. 

f Antiquities of Greece, p. 569. 



THE SPRIG OF ACACIA. 



2 53 



symbolic meaning of the usage, although archaeologists 
have generally supposed it to be simply an exhibition of 
love on the part of the survivors. Ragon says, that the 
ancients substituted the acacia for all other plants because 
they believed it to be incorruptible, and not liable to 
injury from the attacks of any kind of insect or other 
animal — thus symbolizing the incorruptible nature of 
the soul. 

Hence we see the propriety of placing the sprig of 
acacia, as an emblem of immortality, among the symbols 
of that degree, all of whose ceremonies are intended to 
teach us the great truth, that " the life of man, regulated 
by morality, faith, and justice, will be rewarded at its 
closing hour by the prospect of eternal bliss."* So, 
therefore, says Dr. Oliver, when the Master Mason ex- 
claims, "My name is Acacia," it is equivalent to saying, 
" I have been in the grave, — I have triumphed over it by 
rising from the dead, — and being regenerated in the pro- 
cess, I have a claim to life everlasting." 

The sprig of acacia, then, in its most ordinary signifi- 
cation, presents itself to the Master Mason as a symbol 
of the immortality of the soul, being intended to remind 
him, by its evergreen and unchanging nature, of that bet- 
ter and spiritual part within us, which, as an emanation 
from the Grand Architect of the Universe, can never die. 
And as this is the most ordinary, the most generally ac- 
cepted signification, so also is it the most important ; for 
thus, as the peculiar symbol of immortality, it becomes 
the most appropriate to an order all of whose teachings 
are intended to inculcate the great lesson that " life rises 
out of the grave." But incidental to this the acacia has 

* Dr. Crucefix, MS., quoted by Oliver, Landmarks, ii. 2. 



254 THE SPRIG OF ACACIA. 

two other interpretations, which are well worthy of inves- 
tigation. 

Secondly, then, the acacia is a symbol of innocence. 
The symbolism here is of a peculiar and unusual charac- 
ter, depending not on any real analogy in the form or use 
of the symbol to the idea symbolized, but simply on a 
double or compound meaning of the word. For axaxta, 
in the Greek language, signifies both the plant in question 
and the moral quality of innocence or purity of life. In 
this sense the symbol refers, primarily, to him over whose 
solitary grave the acacia was planted, and whose virtuous 
conduct, whose integrity of life and fidelity to his trusts, 
have ever been presented as patterns to the craft, and 
consequently to all Master Masons, who, by this inter- 
pretation of the symbol, are invited to emulate his ex- 
ample. 

Hutchinson, indulging in his favorite theory of Chris- 
tianizing Masonry, when he comes to this signification of 
the symbol, thus enlarges on the interpretation : " We 
Masons, describing the deplorable estate of religion under 
the Jewish law, speak in figures : ' Her tomb was in the 
rubbish and filth cast forth of the temple, and Acacia 
wove its branches over her monument ; ' akakia being 
the Greek word for innocence, or being free from sin ; 
implying that the sins and corruptions of the old law and 
devotees of the Jewish altar had hid Religion from those 
who sought her, and she was only to be found where 
innocence survived, and under the banner of the divine 
Lamb ; and as to ourselves, professing that we were to 
be distinguished by our Acacy^ or as true Acacians in 
our religious faith and tenets." * 

* Spirit of Masonry, lcct. ix. p. 99. 



THE SPRIG OF ACACIA. 255 

Among the nations of antiquity, it was common thus 
by peculiar plants to symbolize the virtues and other 
qualities of the mind. In many instances the sym- 
bolism has been lost to the moderns, but in others it 
has been retained, and is well understood, even at the 
present day. Thus the olive was adopted as the symbol 
of peace, because, says Lee, " its oil is very useful, in 
some way or other, in all arts manual which principally 
flourish in times of peace." * 

The quince among the Greeks was the symbol of love 
and happiness ; f and hence, by the laws of Solon, in 
Athenian marriages, the bride and bridegroom were re- 
quired to eat a quince together. 

The palm was the symbol of victory ; J and hence, in 

* The Temple of Solomon, ch. ix. p. 233. 

t It is probable that the quince derived this symbolism, like the 
acacia, from its name ; for there seems to be some connection 
between the Greek word xvdibviog, which means a quince, and the 
participle xvdlwv, which signifies rejoicing, exulting. But this 
must have been an after-thought, for the name is derived from 
Cydon, in Crete, of which island the quince is a native. 

% Desprez, speaking of the palm as an emblem of victory, says 
{Comment, in Horat. Od. I. i. 5), " Palma vero signum victoriae 
passim apud omnes statuitur, ex Plutarcho, propterea quod ea est 
ejus natura ligni, ut urgentibus opprimentibusque minime cedat. 
Unde est illud Alciati epigramma, — 

' Nititur in pondus palma, et consurgit in altum : 
Quoque magis premitur, hoc mage tollit onus.' " 

It is in the eighth book of his Symposia that Plutarch states 
this peculiar property of the palm to resist the oppression of any 
superincumbent weight, and to rise up against it, whence it was 
adopted as the symbol of victory. Cowley also alludes to it in 
his Davideis. 

" Well did he know how palms by oppression speed 
Victorious, and the victor's sacred meed." 



256 THE SPRIG OF ACACIA. 

the catacombs of Rome, the burial-place of so many of 
the early Christians, the palm leaf is constantly found 
as an emblem of the Christian's triumph over sin and 
death. 

The rosemary was a symbol of remembrance, and 
hence was used both at marriages and at funerals, the 
memory of the past being equally appropriate in both 
rites.* 

The parsley was consecrated to grief; and hence all the 
Greeks decked their tombs with it ; and it was used to 
crown the conquerors in the Nemean games, which were 
of a funereal character, f 

But it is needless to multiply instances of this symbol- 
ism. In adopting the acacia as a symbol of innocence, 
Masonry has but extended the principle of an ancient 
and universal usage, which thus consecrated particular 
plants, by a mystical meaning, to the representation of 
particular virtues. 

But lastly, the acacia is to be considered as the symbol 
of initiation. This is by far the most interesting of 
its interpretations, and w r as, we have every reason to 

* " Rosemary was anciently supposed to strengthen the mem- 
ory, and was not only carried at funerals, but worn at weddings." 
— Steeveks, Notes on Hamlet, a. iv. s. 5. — Douce (Illustrations 
of Shaksfteare, i. 345) gives the following old song in reference 
to this subject : — 

''Rosemarie is for remembrance 
Betweene us daie and night, 
Wishing that I might always have 
You present in my sight." 

t Ste. Croix {Rcekcrches sur les Mysteres, i. 56) says that in 
the Samothracian Mysteries it was forbidden to put parsley on the 
table, because, according to the mystagogues, it had been pro- 
duced by the blood of Cadmillus, slain by his brothers. 



THE SPRIG OF ACACIA. 257 

believe, the primary and original, the others being but in- 
cidental. It leads us at once to the investigation of that 
significant fact to which I have already alluded, that in 
all the ancient initiations and religious mysteries there 
was some plant, peculiar to each, which was consecrated 
by its own esoteric meaning, and which occupied an 
important position in the celebration of the rites ; so that 
the plant, whatever it might be, from its constant and 
prominent use in the ceremonies of initiation, came at 
length to be adopted as the symbol of that initiation. 

A reference to some of these sacred plants — for such 
was the character they assumed — and an investigation 
of their symbolism will not, perhaps, be uninteresting or 
useless, in connection with the subject of the present 
article. 

In the Mysteries of Adonis, which originated in Phoe- 
nicia, and were afterwards transferred to Greece, the 
death and resurrection of Adonis was represented. A 
part of the legend accompanying these mysteries was, that 
when Adonis was slain by a wild boar, Venus laid out 
the body on a bed of lettuce. In memorial of this sup- 
posed fact, on the first day of the celebration, when funeral 
rites were performed, lettuces were carried in the pro- 
cession, newly flanted in shells of earth. Hence the 
lettuce became the sacred plant of the Adonia, or Adonis- 
ian Mysteries. 

The lotus was the sacred plant of the Brahminical rites 
of India, and was considered as the symbol of their 
elemental trinity, — earth, water, and air, — because, as 
an aquatic plant, it derived its nutriment from all of these 
elements combined, its roots being planted in the earth, 
its stem rising through the water, and its leaves exposed 

*7 



258 THE SPRIG OF ACACIA. 



. 



to the air.* The Egyptians, who borrowed a large por- 
tion of their religious rites from the East, adopted the 
lotus, which was also indigenous to their country, as a 
mystical plant, and made it the symbol of their initiation, 
or the birth into celestial light. Hence, as Champollion 
observes, they often on their monuments represented the 
god Phre, or the sun, as borne within the expanded calyx 
of the lotus. The lotus bears a flower similar to that of 
the poppy, while its large, tongue-shaped leaves float upon 
the surface of the water. As the Egyptians had remarked 
that the plant expands when the sun rises, and closes 
when it sets, they adopted it as a symbol of the sun ; and 
as that luminary was the principal object of the popular 
worship, the lotus became in all their sacred rites a con- 
secrated and mystical plant. 

The Egyptians also selected the erica^ or heath, as a 
sacred plant. The origin of the consecration of this plant 
presents us with a singular coincidence, that will be pecu- 
liarly interesting to the masonic student. We are informed 
that there was a legend in the mysteries of Osiris, which 
related, that Isis, when in search of the body of her mur- 
dered husband, discovered it interred at the brow of a 
hill, near which an erica, or heath plant, grew ; and 
hence, after the recovery of the body and the resurrection 

* "The Hindoos," says Faber, " represent their mundane lotus, 
as having four large leaves and four small leaves placed alternate- 
ly, while from the centre of the flower rises a protuberance. Now, 
the circular cup formed by the eight leaves they deem a symbol of 
the earth, floating on the surface of the ocean, and consisting of 
four large continents and four intermediate smaller islands ; while 
the centrical protuberance is viewed by them as representing their 
sacred Mount Menu." — Co?n?mtnication to Gent. Mag. vol. Ixxxvi. 
p. 408. 

t The erica arborea^ or tree heath. 



THE SPRIG OF ACACIA. 



259 



of the god, when she established the mysteries to com- 
memorate her loss and her recovery, she adopted the erica, 
as a sacred plant,* in memory of its having pointed out 
the spot where the mangled remains of Osiris were con- 
cealed.f 

The mistletoe was the sacred plant of Druidism. Its 
consecrated character was derived from a legend of the 
Scandinavian mythology, and which is thus related in 
the Edda, or sacred books. The god Balder, the son of 
Odin, having dreamed that he was in some great danger 
of life, his mother, Friga, exacted an oath from all the 
creatures of the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral 
kingdoms, that they would do no harm to her son. The 
mistletoe, contemptible from its size and weakness, was 
alone neglected, and of it no oath of immunity was 
demanded. Lok, the evil genius, or god of Darkness, 
becoming acquainted with this fact, placed an arrow 
made of mistletoe in the hands of Holder, the blind 
brother of Balder, on a certain day, when the gods were 
throwing missiles at him in sport, and wondering at 
their inability to do him injury with any arms with which 
they could attack him. But, being shot with the mistletoe 
arrow, it inflicted a fatal wound, and Balder died. 

Ever afterwards the mistletoe was revered as a sacred 

* Ragon thus alludes to this mystical event: "Isis found the 
body of Osiris in the neighborhood of Biblos, and near a tall plant 
called the erica. Oppressed with grief, she seated herself on the 
margin of a fountain, whose waters issued from a rock. This 
rock is the small hill mentioned in the ritual ; the erica has been, 
replaced by the acacia, and the grief of Isis has been changed for 
that of the fellow crafts." — Cours des Initiations, p. 151. 

t It is singular, and perhaps significant, that the word eriko, in 
Greek, iglxco, whence erica is probably derived, means to break 
in pieces, to tnangle. 



26o THE SPRIG OF ACACIA. 

plant, consecrated to the powers of darkness ; and annually 
it became an important rite among the Druids to proceed 
into the forest in search of the mistletoe, which, being 
found, was cut down by the Arch Druid, and its parts, 
after a solemn sacrifice, were distributed among the 
people. Clavel * very ingeniously remarks, that it is 
evident, in reference to the legend, that as Balder sym- 
bolizes the Sun-god, and Lok, Darkness, this search for 
the mistletoe was intended to deprive the god of Darkness 
of the power of destroying the god of Light. And the 
distribution of the fragments of the mistletoe among their 
pious worshippers, was to assure them that henceforth a 
similar attempt of Lok would prove abortive, and he was 
thus deprived of the means of effecting his design.f 

The myrtle performed the same office of symbolism in 
the Mysteries of Greece as the lotus did in Egypt, or the 
mistletoe among the Druids. The candidate, in these 
initiations, was crowned with myrtle, because, according 
to the popular theology, the myrtle was sacred to Proser- 
pine, the goddess of the future life. Every classical 
scholar will remember the golden branch with which 
y^Eneas was supplied by the Sibyl, before proceeding on 
his journey to the infernal regions J — a voyage which 

* Histoire Pittoresque des Religions, t. i. p. 217. 

t According to Toland ( Works, i. 74), the festival of searching, 
cutting, and consecrating the mistletoe, took place on the 10th of 
March, or New Year's day. "This," he says, "is the ceremony 
to which Virgil alludes, by his golden branch, in the Sixth Book 
of the ^Eneid." No doubt of it; for all these sacred plants had a 
common origin in some ancient and general symbolic idea. 

% " Under this branch is figured the wreath of myrtle, with 
which the initiated were crowned at the celebration of the 
Mysteries." — Warburton, Divine Legation, vol. i. p. 299. 



THE SPRIG OF ACACIA. 261 

is now universally admitted to be a mythical representa- 
tion of the ceremonies of initiation. 

In all of these ancient Mysteries, while the sacred plant 
was a symbol of initiation, the initiation itself was sym- 
bolic of the resurrection to a future life, and of the im- 
mortality of the soul. In this view, Freemasonry is to 
us now in the place of the ancient initiations, and the 
acacia is substituted for the lotus, the erica, the ivy, the 
mistletoe, and the myrtle. The lesson of wisdom is the 
same ; the medium of imparting it is all that has been 
changed. 

Returning, then, to the acacia, we find that it is capable 
of three explanations. It is a symbol of immortality, 
of innocence, and of initiation. But these three signifi- 
cations are closely connected, and that connection must 
be observed, if we desire to obtain a just interpretation 
of the symbol. Thus, in this one symbol, we are taught 
that in the initiation of life, of which the initiation in the 
third -degree is simply emblematic, innocence must for a 
time lie in the grave, at length, however, to be called, by 
the word of the Grand Master of the Universe, to a blissful 
immortality. Combine with this the recollection of the 
place where the sprig of acacia was planted, and which I 
have heretofore shown to be Mount Calvary, the place of 
sepulture of Him who "brought life and immortality to 
light," and who, in Christian Masonry, is designated, as 
he is in Scripture, as " the lion of the tribe of Judah," 
and remember, too, that in the mystery of his death, the 
wood of the cross takes the place of the acacia, and in 
this little and apparently insignificant symbol, but which 
is really and truly the most important and significant one 
in masonic science, we have a beautiful suggestion of all 



262 THE SPRIG OF ACACIA. 

the mysteries of life and death, of time and eternity, of 
the present and of the future. Thus read (and thus all 
our symbols should be read), Masonry proves something 
more to its disciples than a mere social society or a chari- 
table association. It becomes a " lamp to our feet," 
whose spiritual light shines on the darkness of the death- 
bed, and dissipates the gloomy shadows of the grave. 




XXIX. 



THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOE. 




T is one of the most beautiful features of the 
Masonic Institution, that it teaches not only the 
necessity, but the nobility, of labor. Among the 
earliest of the implements in whose emblematic 
use it instructs its neophytes is the Trestle Board, the 
acknowledged symbol of the Divine Law, in accordance 
with whose decree * labor was originally instituted as the 
common lot of all ; and therefore the important lesson 
that is closely connected with this symbol is, that to 
labor well and truly, to labor honestly and persistently, 
is the object and the chief end of all humanity. 

To work out well the task that is set before us is our 
highest duty, and should constitute our greatest happi- 
ness. All men, then, must have their trestle boards ; 
for the principles that guide us in the discharge of our 
duty — the schemes that we devise — the plans that we 



* " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Gen. iii. 19. 
Bush interprets the decree to mean that " some species of toilsome 
occupation is the appointed lot of all men." 



264 



THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 



propose — arc but the trestle board, whose designs we 
follow, for good or for evil, in our labor of life. 

Earth works with every coining spring, and within 
its prolific bosom designs the bursting seed, the tender 
plant, and the finished tree, upon its trestle board. 

Old ocean works forever — restless and murmuring — 
but still bravely working ; and storms and tempests, the 
purifiers of stagnant nature, are inscribed upon its trestle 
board. 

And God himself, the Grand Architect, the Master 
Builder of the world, has labored from eternity ; and 
working by his omnipotent will, he inscribes his plans 
upon illimitable space, for the universe is his trestle board. 

There was a saying of the monks of old which is 
well worth meditation. They taught that " laborare est 
orare" — labor is worship. They did not, it is true, 
always practise the wise precept. They did not always 
make labor a part of their religion. Like Onnphrius, 
who lived threescore years and ten in the desert, without 
human voice or human sympathy to cheer him, because 
he had not learned that man was made for man, those 
old ascetics went into the wilderness, and built cells, and 
occupied themselves in solitary meditation and profitless 
thought. They prayed much, but they did no work. 
And thus they passed their lives, giving no pity, aid, 
or consolation to their fellow-men, adding no mite to 
the treasury of human knowledge, and leaving the world, 
when their selfish pilgrimage was finished, without a 
single contribution, in labor of mind or body, to its 
welfare.* 



* Aristotle says, " He that cannot contract society with others, 
or who, through his own self-sufficiency [uvi6iQXEt,av~], does not 



THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 265 

And men, seeing the uselessness of these ascetic lives, 
shrink now from their example, and fall back upon that 
wiser teaching, that he best does God's will who best 
does God's work. The world now knows that heaven 
is not served by man's idleness — that the " dolce far 
niente" though it might suit an Italian lazzaroni, is not 
fit for a brave Christian man, and that they who would 
do rightly, and act well their part, must take this distich 
for their motto : — 

" With this hand work, and with the other pray, 
And God will bless them both from day to day. 

Now, this doctrine, that labor is worship, is the very 
doctrine that has been advanced and maintained, from time 
immemorial, as a leading dogma of the Order of Freema- 
sonry. There is no other human institution under the sun 
which has set forth this great principle in such bold re- 
lief. We hear constantly of Freemasonry as an institution 
that inculcates morality, that fosters the social feeling, 
that teaches brotherly love ; and all this is well, because 
it is true ; but we must never forget that from its founda- 
tion-stone to its pinnacle, all over its vast temple, is 
inscribed, in symbols of living light, the great truth that 
labor is worship. 

It has been supposed that, because we speak of Free- 
masonry as a speculative system, it has nothing to do 
with the practical. But this is a most grievous error. 
Freemasonry is, it is true, a speculative science, but it 
is a speculative science based upon an operative art. 
All its symbols and allegories refer to this connection. 

need it, forms no part of the community, but is either a wild beast 
or a god." 



266 THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 

Its very language is borrowed from the art, and it is 
singularly suggestive that the initiation of a candidate 
into its mysteries is called, in its peculiar phraseology, 
work. 

I repeat that this expression is singularly suggestive. 
When the lodge is engaged in reading petitions, hearing 
reports, debating financial matters, it is said to be occu- 
pied in business; but when it is engaged in the form and 
ceremony of initiation into any of the degrees, it is said 
to be at work. Initiation is masonic labor. This phra- 
seology at once suggests the connection of our speculative 
system with an operative art that preceded it, and upon 
which it has been founded. This operative art must 
have given it form and features and organization. If 
the speculative system had been founded solely on phil- 
osophical or ethical principles, if it had been derived 
from some ancient or modern sect of philosophers, — 
from the Stoics, the Epicureans, or the Platonists of the 
heathen world, or from any of the many divisions of the 
scholastics of the middle ages, — this origin would most 
certainly have affected its interior organization as well 
as its external form, and we should have seen our modern 
masonic reunions assuming the style of academies or 
schools. Its technical language — for, like every institu- 
tion isolated from the ordinary and general pursuits of 
mankind, it would have had its own technical dialect — 
would have been borrowed from, and would be easily 
traced to, the peculiar phraseology of the philosophic 
sects which had given it birth. There would have 
been the sophists and the philosophers ; the grcwnina- 
tists and the grammarians ; the scholars, the masters, 
and the doctors. It would have had its trivial and its 



THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 267 

quadrivial schools ; its occupation would have been 
research, experiment, or investigation ; in a word, its 
whole features would have been colored by a grammat- 
ical, a rhetorical, or a mathematical cast, accordingly as 
it should have been derived from a sect in which any 
one of these- three characteristics was the predominating 
influence. 

But in the organization of Freemasonry, as it now 
presents itself to us, we see an entirely different appear- 
ance. Its degrees are expressive, not of advancement in 
philosophic attainments, but of progress in a purely 
mechanical pursuit. Its highest grade is that of Master 
of the Work. Its places of meeting are not schools, but 
lodges, places where the workmen formerly lodged, in 
the neighborhood of the building on whose construction 
they were engaged. It does not form theories, but 
builds temples. It knows nothing of the rules of the 
dialecticians, — of the syllogism, the dilemma, the enthy- 
meme, or the sorites, — but it recurs to the homely imple- 
ments of its operative parent for its methods of instruction, 
and with the plumb-line it inculcates rectitude of conduct, 
and draws lessons of morality from the workman's square. 
It sees in the Supreme God that it worships, not a 
" numen divinum" a divine power, nor a " moderator 
rerum omnium" a controller of all things, ps the old 
philosophers designated him, but a Grand Architect 
of the Universe. The masonic idea of God refers to 
Him as the Mighty Builder of this terrestrial globe, and 
all the countless worlds that surround it. He is not the 
ens entium, or to theion, or any other of the thousand 
titles with which ancient and modern speculation has 
invested him, but simply the Architect, — as the Greeks 



268 THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 

have it, the uqxo; tUtwv, the chief workman, — under 
whom we are all workmen also ; * and hence our labor is 
his worship. 

This idea, then, of masonic labor, is closely connected 
with the history of the organization of the institution. 
When we say " the lodge is at work," we recognize that 
it is in the legitimate practice of that occupation for 
which it was originally intended. The Masons that are 
in it are not occupied in thinking, or speculating, or 
reasoning, but simply and emphatically in working. 
The duty of a Mason as such, in his lodge, is to work. 
Thereby he accomplishes the destiny of his Order. 
Thereby he best fulfils his obligation to the Grand 
Architect, for with the Mason labo?-are est orare — labor 
is worship. 

The importance of masonic labor being thus demon- 
strated, the question next arises as to the nature of that 
labor. What is the work that a Mason is called upon 
to perform? 

Temple building was the original occupation of our 
ancient brethren. Leaving out of view that system of 
ethics and of religious philosophy, that search after truth, 
those doctrines of the unity of God and the immortality 
of the soul, which alike distinguish the ancient Mysteries 
and the masonic institution, and which both must have de- 
rived from a common origin, — most probably from some 
priesthood of the olden time, — let our attention be exclu- 
sively directed, for the present, to that period, so familiar 
to every Mason, when, under the supposed Grand Mas- 

* " Der Arbeiter," says Lenning, " ist der symbolische Name 
eines Freimaurers " — the Workman is the symbolic name of a 
Freemason. — Encyclop, der Fraumererei. 



THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 269 

tership of King Solomon, Freemasonry first assumed " a 
local habitation and a name " in the holy city of Jerusa- 
lem. There the labor of the Israelites and the skill of 
the Tyrians were occupied in the construction of that 
noble temple whose splendor and magnificence of deco- 
ration made it one of the wonders of the world. 

Here, then, we see the two united nations directing 
their attention, with surprising harmony, to the task of 
temple building. The Tyrian workmen, coming imme- 
diately from the bosom of the mystical society of Dionysian 
artificers, whose sole employment was the erection of 
sacred edifices throughout all Asia Minor, indoctrinated 
the Jews with a part of their architectural skill, and 
bestowed upon them also a knowledge of those sacred 
Mysteries which they had practised at Tyre, and from 
which the present interior form of Freemasonry is said 
to be derived. 

Now, if there be any so incredulous as to refuse their 
assent to the universally received masonic tradition on 
this subject, if there be any who would deny all con- 
nection of King Solomon with the origin of Freemasonry, 
except it be in a mythical or symbolical sense, such 
incredulity will not at all affect the chain of argument 
which I am disposed to use. For it will not be denied 
that the corporations of builders in the middle ages, 
those men who were known as " Travelling Freema- 
sons," were substantial and corporeal, and that the 
cathedrals, abbeys, and palaces, whose ruins are still 
objects of admiration to all observers, bear conclusive 
testimony that their existence was nothing like a myth, 
and that their labors were not apocryphal. But these 
Travelling Freemasons, whether led into the error, if 



270 THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 

error it be, by a mistaken reading of history, or by a 
superstitious reverence for tradition, always esteemed 
King Solomon as the founder of their Order. So that 
the first absolutely historical details that we have of the 
masonic institution, connect it with the idea of a temple. 
And it is only for this idea that I contend, for it proves 
that the first Freemasons of whom we have authentic 
record, whether they were at Jerusalem or in Europe, 
and whether they flourished a thousand years before or 
a thousand years after the birth of Christ, always sup- 
posed that temple building was the peculiar specialty 
of their craft, and that their labor was to be the erection 
of temples in ancient times, and cathedrals and churches 
in the Christian age. 

So that we come back at last to the proposition with 
which I had commenced, namely : that temple building 
was the original occupation of our ancient brethren. 
And to this is added the fact, that after a long lapse of 
centuries, a body of men is found in the middle ages who 
were universally recognized as Freemasons, and who 
directed their attention and their skill to the same pur- 
suit, and were engaged in the construction of cathedrals, 
abbeys, and other sacred edifices, these being the Christian 
substitute for the heathen or the Jewish temple. 

And therefore, when we view the history of the Order 
as thus developed in its origin and its design, we are 
justified in saying that, in all times past, its members 
have been recognized as men of labor, and that their 
labor has been temple building. 

But our ancient brethren wrought in both operative 
and speculative Masonry, while we work only in specu- 
lative. They worked with the hand ; we work with the 



THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 2^Jl 

brain. They dealt in the material ; we in the spiritual. 
They used in their labor wood and stones ; we use 
thoughts, and feelings, and affections. We both devote 
ourselves to labor, but the object of the labor and the 
mode of the labor are different. 

The French rituals have given us the key-note to the 
explanation of what is masonic labor when they say that 
" Freemasons erect temples for virtue and dungeons for 
vice." 

The modern Freemasons, like the Masons of old, are 
engaged in the construction of a temple ; but with this 
difference : that the temple of the latter was material, 
that of the former spiritual. When the operative art was 
the predominant characteristic of the Order, Masons were 
engaged in the construction of material and earthly 
temples. But when the operative art ceased, and the 
speculative science took its place, then the Freemasons 
symbolized the labors of their predecessors by engaging 
in the construction of a spiritual temple in their hearts, 
which was to be made so pure that it might become the 
dwelling-place of Him who is all purity. It was to be 
" a house not made with hands," where the hewn stone 
was to be a purified heart. 

This symbolism, which represents man as a temple, a 
house, a sacred building in which God is to dwell, is not 
new, nor peculiar to the masonic science. It was known 
to the Jewish, and is still recognized by the Christian, sys- 
tem. The Talmudists had a saying that the threefold 
repetition of the words " Temple of Jehovah," in the 
seventh chapter and fourth verse of the book of Jere- 
miah, was intended to allude to the existence of three 
temples ; and hence in one of their treatises it is said, 



272 THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 

" Two temples have been destroyed, but the third will en- 
dure forever," in which it is manifest that they referred to 
the temple of the immortal soul in man. 

By a similar allusion, which, however, the Jews chose 
wilfully to misunderstand, Christ declared, " Destroy this 
temple, and in three days I will raise it up." And the 
beloved disciple, who records the conversation, does not 
allow us to doubt of the Saviour's meaning. 

u Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this 
temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three 
days? 

" But he spake of the temple of his body." * 

In more than one place the apostle Paul has fondly 
dwelt upon this metaphor. Thus he tells the Corinthians 
that they are " God's building," and he calls himself the 
u wise master builder," who was to lay the foundation in 
his truthful doctrine, upon which they were to erect the 
edifice.t And he says to them immediately afterwards, 
" Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that 
the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? " 

In consequence of these teachings of the apostles, the 
idea that the body was a temple has pervaded, from the 
earliest times to the present day, the system of Christian 
or theological symbolism. Indeed, it has sometimes been 
carried to an almost too fanciful excess. Thus Samuel 
Lee, in that curious and rare old work, " The Temple of 
Solomon* pourtrayed by Scripture Light" thus dilates 
on this symbolism of the temple : — 

" The foundation of this temple may be laid in hu- 
mility and contrition of spirit, wherein the inhabiter of 

* John iii. 19-21. | * Corinth, iii. 9. 



THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 273 

eternity delighteth to dwell ; we may refer the porch to 
the mouth of a saint, wherein every holy Jacob erects the 
pillars of God's praise, calling upon and blessing his 
name for received mercies ; when songs of deliverance are 
uttered from the doors of his lips. The holy place is the 
renewed mind, and the windows therein may denote 
divine illumination from above, cautioning a saint lest 
they be darkened with the smoke of anger, the mist of 
grief, the dust of vain-glory, or the filthy mire of worldly 
cares. The golden candlesticks, the infused habits of 
divine knowledge resting within the soul. The skew- 
bread^ the word of grace exhibited in the promises for 
the preservation of a Christian's life and glory. The 
golden altar of odors, the breathings, sufferings, and 
groanings after God, ready to break forth into Abba, 
Father. The veiles, the righteousness of Christ. The 
holy of holies may relate to the conscience purified from 
dead works and brought into a heavenly frame." * And 
thus he proceeds, symbolizing every part and utensil of 
the temple as alluding to some emotion or affection of 
man, but in language too tedious for quotation. 

In a similar vein has the celebrated John Bunyan, the 
author of the "Pilgrim's Progress" proceeded in his 
" Temple of Solomon Spiritualized" to refer every part 
of that building to a symbolic meaning, selecting, how- 
ever, the church, or congregation of good men, rather 
than the individual man, as the object of the symbolism. 

In the middle ages the Hermetic philosophers seem to 
have given the same interpretation of the temple, and 
Swedenborg, in his mystical writings, adopts the idea. 

* Orbis Miraculum, or the Temple of Solomon, pourtrayed by 
Scripture Light, ch. ix. p. 192. London, 1659. 
18 



274 THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 

Hitchcock, who has written an admirable little work 
on Swedenborg considered as a Hermetic Philosopher, 
thus alludes to this subject, and his language, as that of 
a learned and shrewd investigator, is well worthy of 
quotation : — 

" With, perhaps, the majority of readers, the Taberna- 
cle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon were mere 
buildings; very magnificent indeed, but still mere build- 
ings for the worship of God. But some are struck with 
many portions of the account of their erection, admitting 
a moral interpretation ; and while the buildings are allowed 
to stand (or to have stood once) visible objects, these in- 
terpreters are delighted to meet with indications that 
Moses and Solomon, in building the temples, were wise 
in the knowledge of God and of man ; from which point 
it is not difficult to pass on to the, moral meaning alto- 
gether, and to affirm that the building which was erected 
without 'the noise of a hammer or axe, or any tool of 
iron,' was altogether a moral building — a building of 
God, not made with hands : in short, many see in the 
story of Solomon's temple a symbolical representation 
of Man as the temple of God, with its holy of holies 
deep-seated in the centre of the human heart."* 

The French Masons have not been inattentive to this 
symbolism. Their already quoted expression that the 
" Freemasons build temples for virtue and dungeons for 
vice," has very clearly a reference to it, and their most 
distinguished writers never lose sight of it. 

* Swedenborg a Hermetic Philosopher, &c, p. 210. The object 
of the author is to show that the Swedish sage was an adept, and 
that his writings may be interpreted from the point of view of 
Hermetic philosophy. 



THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 275 

Thus Ragon, one of the most learned of the French 
historians of Freemasonry, in his lecture to the Appren- 
tice, says that the founders of our Order " called them- 
selves Masons, and proclaimed that they were building a 
temple to truth and virtue." * And subsequently he ad- 
dresses the candidate who has received the Master's de- 
gree in the following language : — 

" Profit by all that has been revealed to you. Improve 
your heart and your mind. Direct your passions to the 
general good ; combat your prejudices ; watch over your 
thoughts and your actions ; love, enlighten, and assist 
your brethren ; and you will have perfected that temple 
of which you are at once the architect, the material, and 
the workman" -\ 

Rebold, another French historian of great erudition, 
says, " If Freemasonry has ceased to erect temples, and 
by the aid of its architectural designs to elevate all hearts 
to the Deity, and all eyes and hopes to heaven, it has not 
therefore desisted from its work of moral and intellectual 
building;" and he thinks that the success of the institu- 
tion has justified this change of purpose and the disrup- 
tion of the speculative from the operative character of the 
Order.]: 

Eliphas Levi, who has written abstrusely and mystical- 
ly on Freemasonry and its collateral sciences, sees very 
clearly an allegorical and a real design in the institution, 
the former being the rebuilding of the temple of Solo- 
mon, and the latter the improvement of the human 

* Cours Philosophiqueet Interpretatif des Initiations Anciennes 
et Modernes, p. 99. 
t Ibid., p. 176. 
X Histoire Generate de la Franc-macjonnerie, p. 52. 



276 THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 

race by a reconstruction of its social and religious ele- 
ments.* 

The Masons of Germany have elaborated this idea with 
all the exhaustiveness that is peculiar to the German 
mind, and the masonic literature of that country abounds 
in essays, lectures, and treatises, in which the prominent 
topic is this building of the Solomonic temple as referring 
to the construction of a moral temple. 

Thus writes Ero. Rhode, of Berlin : — 

" So soon as any one has received the consecration of 
our Order, we say to him that we are building a mystical 
temple ; " and he adds that " this temple which we Masons 
are building is nothing else than that which will conduce 
to the greatest possible happiness of mankind." f 

And another German brother, Von Wedekind, asserts 
that " we only labor in our temple when we make man 
our predominating object, when we unite goodness of 
heart with polished manners, truth with beauty, virtue 
with grace." J 

Again we have Reinhold telling us, in true Teutonic 
expansiveness of expression, that " by the mystical Solo- 
monic temple we are to understand the high ideal or 
archetype of humanity in the best possible condition of 
social improvement, wherein every evil inclination is 
overcome, every passion is resolved into the spirit of 

* Histoire de la Magie, liv. v. ch. vii. p. 100. 

f Vorlesung Uber das Symbol des Tempels, in the " Jarbilchern 
der Gross. Loge Roy. York zur Freundschaft," cited by Lenning, 
Encyc, voc. Tempel. 

% In an Essay on the Masonic Idea of Man's Destination, cited 
by Lenning, nt supra, from the Altenburg Zeitschift der Frei- 
maurcrei. 



THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 277 

love, and wherein each for all, and all for each, kindly 
strive to work."* 

And thus the German Masons call this striving for an 
almost millennial result laboi' in the temple. 

The English Masons, although they have not treated 
the symbolism of the Order with the same abstruse inves- 
tigation that has distinguished those of Germany and 
France, still have not been insensible to this idea that 
the building of the Solomonic temple is intended to 
indicate a cultivation of the human character. Thus 
Hutchinson, one of the earliest of the symbolic writers 
of England, shows a very competent conception — for 
the age in which he lived — of the mystical meaning of 
the temple ; and later writers have improved upon his 
crude views. It must, however, be acknowledged that 
neither Hutchinson nor Oliver, nor any other of the dis- 
tinguished masonic writers of England, has dwelt on this 
peculiar symbolism of a moral temple with that earnest 
appreciation of the idea that is to be found in the works 
of the French and German Masons. But although the 
allusions are rather casual and incidental, yet the symbolic 
theory is evidently recognized, f 

Our own country has produced many students of Ma- 
sonic symbolism, who have thoroughly grasped this noble 
thought, and treated it with eloquence and erudition. 

Fifty years ago Salem Towne wrote thus : " Specula- 



* Cited by Lenning, ut sufl. 

t Thus Dr. Oliver, while treating of the relation of the temple 
to the lodge, thus briefly alludes to this important symbol: "As 
our ancient brethren erected a material temple, without the use 
of axe, hammer, or metal tool, so is our moral temple con- 
structed." — Historical Land7narks, lect. xxxi. 



278 THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 

tive Masonry, according to present acceptation, has an 
ultimate reference to that spiritual building erected by 
virtue in the heart, and summarily implies the arrange- 
ment and perfection of those holy and sublime principles 
by which the soul is fitted for a meet temple of God in a 
world of immortality." * 

Charles Scott has devoted one of the lectures in his 
"Analogy of Ancient Craft Masonry to Natural and Re- 
vealed Religion " to a thorough consideration of this sub- 
ject. The language is too long for quotation, but the 
symbol has been well interpreted by him.f 

Still more recently, Bro. John A. Lodor has treated the 
topic in an essay, which I regret has not had a larger cir- 
culation. A single and brief passage may show the spirit 
of the production, and how completely it sustains the idea 
of this symbolism. 

" We may disguise it as we will," says Bro. Lodor, 
" we may evade a scrutiny of it; but our character, as it 
is, with its faults and blemishes, its weaknesses and in- 
firmities, its vices and its stains, together with its redeem- 
ing traits, its better parts, is our speculative temple." 
And he goes on to extend the symbolic idea : u Like the 
exemplar temple on Mount Moriah, it should be preserved 
as a hallowed shrine, and guarded with the same vigilant 
care. It should be our pearl of price set round with 
walls and enclosures, even as was the Jewish temple, and 
the impure, the vicious, the guilty, and the profane be 
banished from even its outer courts. A faithful sentinel 
should be placed at every gate, a watchman on every 

* System of Speculative Masonry, ch. vi. p. 63. 
f On the Speculative Temple — an essay read in 1861 before 
the Grand Lodge of Alabama. 



THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 279 

wall, and the first approach of a cowan and eavesdropper 
be promptly met and resisted." 

Teachings like this are now so common that every 
American Mason who has studied the symbolism of his 
Order believes, with Carlyle, that " there is but one tem- 
ple in the world, and that is the body of man." 

This inquiry into the meaning and object of labor, as a 
masonic symbol, brings us to these conclusions : — 

1. That our ancient brethren worked as long as the 
operative art predominated in the institution at material 
temples, the most prominent of these being the temple 
of King Solomon. 

2. That when the speculative science took the place 
of the operative art, the modern Masons, working no 
longer at material temples, but holding still to the sa- 
cred thought, the reverential idea, of a holy temple, a 
Lord's house to be built, began to labor at living temples, 
and to make man, the true house of the Lord, the taber- 
nacle for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 

And, 3. Therefore to every Freemason who rightly 
comprehends his art, this construction of a living temple 
is his labor. 

" Labor," says Gadicke, the German masonic lexicog- 
rapher, " is an important word in Masonry ; indeed, we 
might say the most important. For this, and this alone, 
does a man become a Freemason. Every other object is 
secondary or incidental. Labor is the accustomed design 
of every lodge meeting. But does such meeting always 
furnish evidence of industry ? The labor of an operative 
mason will be visible, and he will receive his reward for 
it, even though the building he has constructed may, in 
the next hour, be overthrown by a tempest. He knows 



280 THE SYMBOLISM OF LABOR. 

that he has done his labor. And so must the Freemason 
labor. His labor must be visible to himself and to his 
brethren, or, at least, it must conduce to his own internal 
satisfaction. As we build neither a visible Solomonic 
temple nor an Egyptian pyramid, our industry must 
become visible in works that are imperishable, so that 
when we vanish from the eyes of mortals it may be said 
of us that our labor was well done." 

And remembering what the apostle has said, that we 
are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth 
in us, we know that our labor is so to build that temple 
that it shall become worthy of its divine Dweller. 

And thus, too, at last, we can understand the saying 
of the old monks that " labor is worship ; " and as Masons 
we labor in our lodge, labor to make ourselves a perfect 
building, without blemish, working hopefully for the con- 
summation, when the house of our earthly tabernacle shall 
be finished, when the lost word of divine truth shall at 
last be discovered, and when we shall be found by our 
own efforts at perfection to have done God service. For 
so truly is the meaning of those noble words — Labor 
is Worship. 




XXX. 

THE STONE OF FOUNDATION.* 

y'^WHE Stone of Foundation constitutes one of the 
4\ most important and abstruse of all the symbols 
\£|y °f Freemasonry. It is referred to in numerous 
legends and traditions, not only of the Freemasons, but 
also of the Jewish Rabbins, the Talmudic writers, and 
even the Mussulman doctors. Many of these, it must be 
confessed, are apparently puerile and absurd ; but some 
of them, and especially the masonic ones, are deeply 
interesting in their allegorical signification. 

The Stone of Foundation is, properly speaking, a 
symbol of the higher degrees. It makes its first appear- 
ance in the Royal Arch, and forms, indeed, the most 
important symbol of that degree. But it is so intimately 
connected, in its legendary history, with the construction 
of the Solomonic temple, that it must be considered as 
a part of Ancient Craft Masonry, although he who con- 
fines the range of his investigations to the first three 



* A portion of this essay, but in a very abridged form, was used 
by the author in his work on " Cryptic Masonry." 



2S2 THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 

degrees, will have no means, within that narrow limit, 
of properly appreciating the symbolism of the Stone of 
Foundation. 

As preliminary to the inquiry which is about to be 
instituted, it is necessary to distinguish the Stone of 
Foundation, both in its symbolism and in its legendary 
history, from other stones which play an important part 
in the masonic ritual, but which are entirely distinct 
from it. Such are the cor7ter-stone, which was always 
placed in the north-east corner of the building about to 
be erected, and to which such a beautiful reference is 
made in the ceremonies of the first degree ; or the key- 
stone, which constitutes an interesting part of the Mark 
Master's degree ; or, lastly, the cape-stone, upon which 
all the ritual of the Most Excellent Master's degree is 
founded. These are all, in their proper places, highly 
interesting and instructive symbols, but have no connec- 
tion whatever with the Stone of Foundation or its sym- 
bolism. Nor, although the Stone of Foundation is said, 
for peculiar reasons, to have been of a cubical form, must 
it be confounded with that stone called by the continental 
Masons the cubical stone — the pierre cubique of the 
French, and the cubik stein of the German Masons, but 
which in the English system is known as the perfect 
asJilai'. 

The Stone of Foundation has a legendary history and 
a symbolic signification which are peculiar to itself, and 
which differ from the history and meaning which belong 
to these other stones. 

Let us first define this masonic Stone of Foundation, 
then collate the legends which refer to it, and afterwards 
investigate its significance as a symbol. To the Mason 



THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 283 

who takes a pleasure in the study of the mysteries of his 
institution, the investigation cannot fail to be interesting, 
if it is conducted with any ability. 

But in the very beginning, as a necessary preliminary to 
any investigation of this kind, it must be distinctly under- 
stood that all that is said of this Stone of Foundation in 
Masonry is to be strictly taken in a mythical or allegorical 
sense. Dr. Oliver, the most learned of our masonic 
writers, while undoubtedly himself knowing that it was 
simply a symbol, has written loosely of it, as though it 
were a substantial reality ; and hence, if the passages in 
his " Historical Landmarks," and in his other works 
which refer to this celebrated stone are accepted by his 
readers in a literal sense, they will present absurdities 
and puerilities which would not occur if the Stone of 
Foundation was received, as it really is, as a philosophical 
myth, conveying a most profound and beautiful symbol- 
ism. Read in this spirit, as all the legends of Masonry 
should be read, the mythical story of the Stone of Foun- 
dation becomes one of the most important and interesting 
of all the masonic symbols. 

The Stone of Foundation is supposed, by the theory 
which establishes it, to have been a stone placed at one 
time within the foundations of the temple of Solomon, 
and afterwards, during the building of the second temple, 
transported to the Holy of Holies. It was in form a 
perfect cube, and had inscribed upon its upper face, 
within a delta or triangle, the sacred tetragrammaton, 
or ineffable name of God. Oliver, speaking with the 
solemnity of an historian, says that Solomon thought 
that he had rendered the house of God worthy, so far 
as human adornment could effect, for the dwelling of 



2S4 THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 

God, " when he had placed the celebrated Stone of 
Foundation, on which the sacred name was mystically 
engraven, with solemn ceremonies, in that sacred deposi- 
tory on Mount Moriah, along with the foundations of 
Dan and Asher, the centre of the Most Holy Place, 
where the ark was overshadowed by the shekinah of 
God." * The Hebrew Talmudists, who thought as much 
of this stone, and had as many legends concerning it as 
the masonic Talmudists, called it eben shatijahft or 
" Stone of Foundation," because, as they said, it had been 
laid by Jehovah as the foundation of the world ; and hence 
the apocryphal book of Enoch speaks of the "stone which 
supports the corners of the earth." 

This idea of a foundation stone of the world was most 
probably derived from that magnificent passage of the 
book of Job, in which the Almighty demands of the 
afflicted patriarch, — 

" Where wast thou, when I laid the foundation of the earth? 
Declare, since thou hast such knowledge! 
Who fixed its dimensions, since thou knowest? 
Or who stretched out the line upon it? 
Upon what were its foundations fixed? 
And who laid its corner-stone, 
When the morning stars sang together, 
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?" t 

Noyes, whose beautiful translation I have adopted as 
not materially differing from the common version, but 
which is far more poetical and more in the strain of the 
original, thus explains the allusions to the foundation- 

* Hist. Landmarks, i. 459, note 52. 

t H 'i TIES *pH- See the Gemara and Buxtorf Lex. Talm., p. 2541. 

\ Job xxxviii. 4-7. 



THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 2S5 

stone : " It was the custom to celebrate the laying of the 
corner-stone of an important building with music, songs, 
shouting, &c. Hence the morning stars are represent- 
ed as celebrating the laying of the corner-stone of the 
earth." * 

Upon this meagre statement have been accumulated 
more traditions than appertain to any other masonic 
symbol. The Rabbins, as has already been intimated, 
divide the glory of these apocryphal histories with the 
Masons ; indeed, there is good reason for a suspicion 
that nearly all the masonic legends owe their first exist- 
ence to the imaginative genius of the writers of the 
Jewish Talmud. But there is this difference between 
the Hebrew and the masonic traditions, that the Talmudic 
scholar recited them as truthful histories, and swallowed, 
in one gulp of faith, all their impossibilities and anach- 
ronisms, while the masonic student has received them 
as allegories, whose value is not in the facts, but in the 
sentiments which they convey. 

With this understanding of their meaning, let us pro- 
ceed to a collation of these legends. 

In that blasphemous work, the '"''Toldoth jfeshu" or 
Life of fesus, written, it is supposed, in the thirteenth 
or fourteenth century, we find the following account of 
this wonderful stone : — 

" At that time [the time of Jesus] there was in the 
House of the Sanctuary [that is, the temple] a Stone 
of Foundation, which is the very stone that our father 
Jacob anointed with oil, as it is described in the twenty- 
eighth chapter of the book of Genesis. On that stone the 

* A New Translation of the Book of Job, notes, p. 196. 



286 THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 

letters of the tetragrammaton were inscribed, and who- 
soever of the Israelites should learn that name would be 
able to master the world. To prevent, therefore, any 
one from learning these letters, two iron dogs were placed 
upon two columns in front of the Sanctuary. If any 
person, having acquired the knowledge of these letters, 
desired to depart from the Sanctuary, the barking of the 
dogs, by magical power, inspired so much fear, that he 
suddenly forgot what he had acquired." 

This passage is cited by the learned Buxtorf, in his 
"Lexicon Talmud i cum;" * but in the copy of the " Tol- 
doth Jeshu" which I have the good fortune to possess 
(for it is among the rarest of books), I find another pas- 
sage which gives some additional particulars, in the 
following words : — 

" At that time there was in the temple the ineffable 
name of God, inscribed upon the Stone of Foundation. 
For when King David was digging the foundation for 
the temple, he found in the depths of the excavation a 
certain stone, on which the name of God was inscribed. 
This stone he removed, and deposited it in the Holy of 
Holies." t 

The same puerile story of the barking dogs is repeated, 
still more at length. It is not pertinent to the present 

* In voc. fi^TllD? where some other curious extracts from the 
Talmud and Talmudic writers on the subject of the Stone of Foun- 
dation are given. 

f Sepher Toldoth Jeshu, p. 6. The abominably scurrilous char- 
acter of this work aroused the indignation of the Christians, who, 
in the fifteenth century, were not distinguished for a spirit of 
tolerance, and the Jews, becoming alarmed, made every effort to 
suppress it. But, in 16S1, it was republished by Wagenselius in 
his "Tela Ignea Satanae," with a Latin translation. 



THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 2S7 

inquiry, but it may be stated as a mere matter of curious 
information, that this scandalous book, which is through- 
out a blasphemous defamation of our Saviour, proceeds 
to say, that he cunningly obtained a knowledge of the 
tetragrammaton from the Stone of Foundation, and by its 
mystical influence was enabled to perform his miracles. 

The masonic legends of the Stone of Foundation, 
based on these and other rabbinical reveries, are of the 
most extraordinary character, if they are to be viewed 
as histories, but readily reconcilable with sound sense, 
if looked at only in the light of allegories. They present 
an uninterrupted succession of events, in which the Stone 
of Foundation takes a prominent part, from Adam to 
Solomon, and from Solomon to Zerubbabel. 

Thus the first of these legends, in order of time, re- 
lates that the Stone of Foundation was possessed by 
Adam while in the garden of Eden ; that he used it as 
an altar, and so reverenced it, that, on his expulsion from 
Paradise, he carried it with him into the world in which 
he and his descendants were afterwards to earn their 
bread by the sweat of their brow. 

Another legend informs us that from Adam the Stone 
of Foundation descended to Seth. From Seth it passed 
by regular succession to Noah, who took it with him into 
the ark, and after the subsidence of the deluge, made on 
it his first thank-offering. Noah left it on Mount Ararat, 
where it was subsequently found by Abraham, who re- 
moved it, and consequently used it as an altar of sacrifice. 
His grandson Jacob took it with him when he fled to his 
uncle Laban in Mesopotamia, and used it as a pillow 
when, in the vicinity of Luz, he had his celebrated 
vision. 



288 THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 

Here there is a sudden interruption in the legendary 
history of the stone, and we have no means of conjectur- 
ing how it passed from the possession of Jacob into that 
of Solomon. Moses, it is true, is said to have taken it 
with him out of Egypt at the time of the exodus, and 
thus it may have finally reached Jerusalem. Dr. Adam 
Clarke * repeats what he very properly calls " a foolish 
tradition," that the stone on which Jacob rested his head 
was afterwards brought to Jerusalem, thence carried after 
a long lapse of time to Spain, from Spain to Ireland, and 
from Ireland to Scotland, where it was used as a seat on 
which the kings of Scotland sat to be crowned. Edward 
I., we know, brought a stone, to which this legend is 
attached, from Scotland to Westminster Abbey, where, 
under the name of Jacob's Pillow, it still remains, and is 
always placed under the chair upon which the British 
sovereign sits to be crowned, because there is an old 
distich which declares that wherever this stone is found 
the Scottish kings shall reign. f 

But this Scottish tradition would take the Stone of 
Foundation away from all its masonic connections, and 
therefore it is rejected as a masonic legend. 

The legends just related are in many respects contra- 
dictory and unsatisfactory, and another series, equally as 
old, are now very generally adopted by masonic scholars, 
as much better suited to the symbolism by which all these 
legends are explained. 

This series of legends commences with the patriarch 
Enoch, who is supposed to have been the first conseciator 

* Comment, on Gen. xxviii. 18. 

f " Ni fallit fatum, Scoti quocunque locatum 

Invenient lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem." 



THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 289 

of the Stone of Foundation. The legend of Enoch is so 
interesting and important in masonic science as to excuse 
something more than a brief reference to the incidents 
which it details. 

The legend in full is as follows : Enoch, under the 
inspiration of the Most High, and in obedience to the 
instructions which he had received in a vision, built a 
temple under ground on Mount Moriah, and dedicated 
it to God. His son, Methuselah, constructed the build- 
ing, although he was not acquainted with his father's 
motives for the erection. This temple consisted of nine 
vaults, situated perpendicularly beneath each other, and 
communicating by apertures left in each vault. 

Enoch then caused a triangular plate of gold to be 
made, each side of which was a cubit long ; he enriched 
it with the most precious stones, and encrusted the plate 
upon a stone of agate of the same form. On the plate he 
engraved the true name of God, or the tetragrammaton, 
and placing it on a cubical stone, known thereafter as the 
Stone of Foundation, he deposited the whole within the 
lowest arch. 

When this subterranean building was completed, he 
made a door of stone, and attaching to it a ring of iron, 
by which it might be occasionally raised, he placed it 
over the opening of the uppermost arch, and so covered 
it that the aperture could not be discovered. Enoch 
himself was not permitted to enter it but once a year, 
and after the days of Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech, 
and the destruction of the world by the deluge, all knowl- 
edge of the vault or subterranean temple, and of the 
Stone of Foundation, with the sacred and ineffable name 
inscribed upon it, was lost for ages to the world. 
J 9 



29O THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 

At the building of the first temple of Jerusalem, the 
Stone of Foundation again makes its appearance. Ref- 
erence has already been made to the Jewish tradition that 
David, when digging the foundations of the temple, found 
in the excavation which he was making a certain stone, 
on which the ineffable name of God was inscribed, and 
which stone he is said to have removed and deposited in 
the Holy of Holies. That King David laid the founda- 
tions of the temple upon which the superstructure was 
subsequently erected by Solomon, is a favorite theory of 
the legend-mongers of the Talmud. 

The masonic tradition is substantially the same as the 
Jewish, but it substitutes Solomon for David, thereby 
giving a greater air of probability to the narrative ; and 
it supposes that the stone thus discovered by Solomon 
was the identical one that had been deposited in his 
secret vault by Enoch. This Stone of Foundation, the 
tradition states, was subsequently removed by King Solo- 
mon, and, for wise purposes, deposited in a secret and 
safer place. 

In this the masonic tradition again agrees with the 
Jewish, for we find in the third chapter of the "Treatise 
on the Temple" written by the celebrated Maimonides, 
the following narrative : — 

" There was a stone in the Holy of Holies, on its west 
side, on which was placed the ark of the covenant, and 
before it the pot of manna and Aaron's rod. But when 
Solomon had built the temple, and foresaw that it was, 
at some future time, to be destroyed, he constructed a 
deep and winding vault under ground, for the purpose 
of concealing the ark, wherein Josiah afterwards, as we 
learn in the Second Book of Chronicles, xxxv. 3, depos- 



THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 29 1 

ited it, with the pot of manna, the rod of Aaron, and the 
oil of anointing." 

The Talmudical book " Toma " gives the same tradi- 
tion, and says that " the ark of the covenant was placed 
in the centre of the Holy of Holies, upon a stone rising 
three fingers' breadth above the floor, to be, as it were, a 
pedestal for it." " This stone," says Prideaux,* " the 
Rabbins call the Stone of Foundation, and give us a 
great deal of trash about it." 

There is much controversy as to the question of the 
existence of any ark in the second temple. Some of the 
Jewish writers assert that a new one was made ; others, 
that the old one was found where it had been concealed 
by Solomon ; and others again contend that there was no 
ark at all in the temple of Zerubbabel, but that its place 
was supplied by the Stone of Foundation on which it had 
originally rested. 

Royal Arch Masons well know how all these traditions 
are sought to be reconciled by the masonic legend, in 
which the substitute ark and the Stone of Foundation 
play so important a part. 

In the thirteenth degree of the Ancient and Accepted 
Rite, the Stone of Foundation is conspicuous as the 
resting-place of the sacred delta. 

In the Royal Arch and Select Master's degrees of the 
Americanized York Rite, the Stone of Foundation con- 
stitutes the most important part of the ritual. In both of 
these it is the receptacle of the ark, on which the ineffable 
name is inscribed. 

Lee, in his "Temple of Solomon" has devoted a chap- 

* Old and New Testament connected, vol. i. p. 148. 



292 THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 

ter to this Stone of Foundation, and thus recapitulates the 
Talmudic and Rabbinical traditions on the subject : — 

" Vain and futilous are the feverish dreams of the an- 
cient Rabbins concerning the Foundation Stone of the 
temple. Some assert that God placed this stone in the 
centre of the world, for a future basis and settled consis- 
tency for the earth to rest upon. Others held this stone 
to be the first matter, out of which all the beautiful visible 
beings of the world have been hewn forth and produced 
to light. Others relate that this was the very same stone 
laid by Jacob for a pillow under his head, in that night 
when he dreamed of an angelic vision at Bethel, and 
afterwards anointed and consecrated it to God. Which 
when Solomon had found (no doubt by forged revelation, 
or some tedious search, like another Rabbi Selemoh), he 
durst not but lay it sure, as the principal foundation 
stone of the temple. Nay, they say further, he caused 
to be engraved upon it the tetragrammaton, or the ineffa- 
ble name of Jehovah." * 

It will be seen that the masonic traditions on the sub- 
ject of the Stone of Foundation do not differ very mate- 
rially from these Rabbinical ones, although they give a 
few additional circumstances. 

In the masonic legend, the Foundation Stone first makes 
its appearance, as I have already said, in the days of 
Enoch, who placed it in the bowels of Mount Moriah. 
There it was subsequently discovered by King Solomon, 
who deposited it in a crypt of the first temple, where it 
remained concealed until the foundations of the second 

* The Temple of Solomon, pourtrajed by Scripture Light, 
ch. ix. p. 194. Of the Mysteries laid up in the Foundation of the 

Temple. 



THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 293 

temple were laid, when it was discovered and removed 
to the Holy of Holies. But the most important point of 
the legend of the Stone of Foundation is its intimate and 
constant connection with the tetragrammaton, or ineffable 
name. It is this name, inscribed upon it, within the 
sacred and symbolic delta, that gives to the stone all its 
masonic value and significance. It is upon this fact, that 
it was so inscribed, that its whole symbolism depends. 

Looking at these traditions in anything like the light of 
historical narratives, we are compelled to consider them, 
to use the plain language of Lee, " but as so many idle 
and absurd conceits." We must go behind the legend, 
viewing it only as an allegory, and study its symbolism. 

The symbolism of the Foundation Stone of Masonry is 
therefore the next subject of investigation. 

In approaching this, the most abstruse, and one of the 
most important, symbols of the Order, we are at once 
impressed with its apparent connection with the ancient 
doctrine of stone worship. Some brief consideration of 
this species of religious culture is therefore necessary for 
a proper understanding of the real symbolism of the Stone 
of Foundation. 

The worship of stones is a kind of fetichism, which in 
the very infancy of religion prevailed, perhaps, more 
extensively than any other form of religious culture. 
Lord Karnes explains the fact by supposing that stones 
erected as monuments of the dead became the place 
where posterity paid their veneration to the memory of 
the deceased, and that at length the people, losing sight 
of the emblematical signification, which was not readily 
understood, these monumental stones became objects of 
worship. 



294 THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 

Others have sought to find the origin of stone-worship 
in the stone that was set up and anointed by Jacob at 
Bethel, and the tradition of which had extended into the 
heathen nations and become corrupted. It is certain that 
the Phoenicians worshipped sacred stones under the name 
of Bcetylia, which word is evidently derived from the 
Hebrew Bethel; and this undoubtedly gives some appear- 
ance of plausibility to the theory. 

But a third theory supposes that the worship of stones 
was derived from the unskilfulness of the primitive sculp- 
tors, who, unable to frame, by their meagre principles of 
plastic art, a true image of the God whom they adored, 
were content to substitute in its place a rude or scarcely 
polished stone. Hence the Greeks, according to Pausa- 
nias, originally used unhewn stones to represent their 
deities, thirty of which that historian says he saw in the 
city of Pharce. These stones were of a cubical form, and 
as the greater number of them were dedicated to the srod 
Hermes, or Mercury, they received the generic name of 
Herrnce. Subsequently, with the improvement of the 
plastic art, the head was added.* 

One of these consecrated stones was placed before the 
door of almost every house in Athens. They were also 
placed in front of the temples, in the gymnasia or schools, 
in libraries, and at the corners of streets, and in the roads. 
When dedicated to the god Terminus they were used as 
landmarks, and placed as such upon the concurrent lines 
of neighboring possessions. 

The Thebans worshipped Bacchus under the form of a 
rude, square stone. 

* See Pausanias, lib. iv. 



THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 295 

Arnobius* says that Cybele was represented by a small 
stone of a black color. Eusebius cites Porphyry as saying 
that the ancients represented the deity by^a black stone, 
because his nature is obscure and inscrutable. The reader 
will here be reminded of the black stone Hadsjar el 
Aswad, placed in the south-west corner of the Kaaba at 
Mecca, which was worshipped by the ancient Arabians, 
and is still treated with religious veneration by the mod- 
ern Mohammedans. The Mussulman priests, however, 
say that it was originally white, and of such surprising 
splendor that it could be seen at the distance of four days' 
journey, but that it has been blackened by the tears of 
pilgrims. 

The Druids, it is well known, had no other images of 
their gods but cubical, or sometimes columnar, stones, of 
which Toland grves several instances. 

The Chaldeans had a sacred stone, which they held in 
great veneration, under the name of Mnizuris, and to 
which they sacrificed for the purpose of evoking the 
Good Demon. 

Stone-worship existed among the early American races. 
Squier quotes Skinner as asserting that the Peruvians used 
to set up rough stones in their fields and plantations, which 
were worshipped as protectors of their crops. And Gama 
says that in Mexico the presiding god of the spring was 
often represented without a human body, and in place 
thereof a pilaster or square column, whose pedestal was 
covered with various sculptures. 

Indeed, so universal was this stone-worship, that Hig- 

* The " Disputationes adversus Gentes " of Arnobius supplies 
us with a fund of information on the symbolism of the classic 
mythology. 



296 THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 

gins, in his " Celtic Druids" says that, " throughout the 
world the first object of idolatry seems to have been a 
plain, unwrought stone, placed in the ground, as an em- 
blem of the generative or procreative powers of nature." 
And the learned Bryant, in his '•''Analysis of Ancle?it 
Mythology" asserts that " there is in every oracular tem- 
ple some legend about a stone." 

Without further citations of examples from the religious 
usages of other countries, it will, I think, be conceded that 
the cubical stone formed an important part of the religious 
worship of primitive nations. But Cudworth, Bryant, 
Faber, and all other distinguished writers who have 
treated the subject, have long since established the theory 
that the pagan religions were eminently symbolic. 
Thus, to use the language of Dudley, the pillar or stone 
" was adopted as a symbol of strength and firmness, — a 
symbol, also, of the divine power, and, by a ready infer- 
ence, a symbol or idol of the Deity himself."* And this 
symbolism is confirmed by Cornutus, who says that the 
god Hermes was represented without hands or feet, being 
a cubical stone, because the cubical figure betokened his 
solidity and stability.! 

Thus, then, the following facts have been established, 
but not precisely in this order : First, that there was a 
very general prevalence among the earliest nations of 
antiquity of the worship of stones as the representatives 
of Deity ; secondly, that in almost every ancient temple 
there was a legend of a sacred or mystical stone ; thirdly, 
that this legend is found in the masonic system ; and last- 
ly, that the mystical stone there has received the name of 
the " Stone of Foundation." 

* Naology, ch. iii. p. 119. f Cornut. de Nat. Deor. c. 16. 



THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 297 

Now, as ill all the other systems the stone is admitted 
to be symbolic, and the tradition connected with it mys- 
tical, we are compelled to assume the same predicates of 
the masonic stone. It, too, is symbolic, and its legend a 
myth or an allegory. 

Of the fable, myth, or allegory, Bailly has said that, 
" subordinate to history and philosophy, it only deceives 
that it may the better instruct us. Faithful in preserving 
the realities which are confided to it, it covers with its 
seductive envelope the lessons of the one and the truths 
of the other."* It is from this stand-point that w r e are to 
view the allegory of the Stone of Foundation, as devel- 
oped in one of the most interesting and important sym- 
bols of Masonry. 

The fact that the mystical stone in all the ancient re- 
ligions was a symbol of the Deity, leads us necessarily to 
the conclusion that the Stone of Foundation was also a 
symbol of Deity. And thjs symbolic idea is strengthened 
by the tetragrammaton, or sacred name of God, that was 
inscribed upon it. This ineffable name sanctifies the 
stone upon which it is engraved as the symbol of the 
Grand Architect. It takes from it its heathen significa- 
tion as an idol, and consecrates it to the worship of the 
true God. 

The predominant idea of the Deity, in the masonic 
system, connects him with his creative and formative 
power. God is, to the Freemason, Al Gadil, as the Ara- 
bians called him, that is, The Builder ; or, as expressed 
in his masonic title, the Grand Architect of the Universe, 
by common consent abbreviated in the formula G. A. O. 
T. U. Now, it is evident that no symbol could so appro- 

* Essais sur les Fables, t. i. lett. 2. p. 9. 



298 THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 

priately suit him in this character as the Stone of Foun- 
dation, upon which he is allegorically supposed to have 
erected his world. Such a symbol closely connects the 
creative work of God, as a pattern and exemplar, with 
the workman's erection of his temporal building on a 
similar foundation stone. 

But this masonic idea is still further to be extended. 
The great object of all Masonic labor is divi?ze truth. 
The search for the lost word is the search for truth. But 
divine truth is a term synonymous with God. The inef- 
fable name is a symbol of truth, because God, and God 
alone, is truth. It is properly a scriptural idea. The 
Book of Psalms abounds with this sentiment. Thus it 
is said that the truth of the Lord " reacheth unto the 
clouds," and that " his truth endureth unto all genera- 
tions." If, then, God is truth, and the Stone of Founda- 
tion is the masonic symbol of God, it follows that it must 
also be the symbol of divine truth. 

When we have arrived at this point in our speculations, 
we are ready to show how all the myths and legends of 
the Stone of Foundation may be rationally explained as 
parts of that beautiful " science of morality, veiled in 
allegory and illustrated by symbols," which is the ac- 
knowledged definition of Freemasonry. 

In the masonic system there are two temples ; the first 
temple, in which the degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry 
are concerned, and the second temple, with which the 
higher degrees, and especially the Royal Arch, are re- 
lated. The first temple is symbolic of the present life ; 
the second temple is symbolic of the life to come. The 
first temple, the present life, must be destroyed; on its 
foundations the second temple, the life eternal, must be 
built. 



THE STONE OF FOUNDATION. 299 

But the mystical stone was placed by King Solomon 
in the foundations of the first temple. That is to say, 
the first temple of our present life must be built on the 
sure foundation of divine truth, "for other foundation 
can no man lay. 

^But although the present life is necessarily built upon 
the foundation of truth, yet we never thoroughly attain 
it in this sublunary sphere. The Foundation Stone is 
concealed in the first temple, and the Master Mason 
knows it not. He has not the true word. He receives 
only a substitute. 

But in the second temple of the future life, we have 
passed from the grave, which had been the end of our 
labors in the first. We have removed the rubbish, and 
have found that Stone of Foundation which had been hith- 
erto concealed from our eyes. We now throw aside the 
substitute for truth which had contented us in the former 
temple, and the brilliant effulgence of the tetragrammaton 
and the Stone of Foundation are discovered, and thence- 
forth we are the possessors of the true word — of divine 
truth. And in this way, the Stone of Foundation, or 
divine truth, concealed in the first temple, but discovered 
and brought to light in the second, will explain that pas- 
sage of the apostle, " For now we see through a glass 
darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but 
then shall I know even as also I am known." 

And so, the result of this inquiry is, that the masonic 
Stone of Foundation is a symbol of divine truth, upon 
which all Speculative Masonry is built, and the legends 
and traditions which refer to it are intended to describe, 
in an allegorical way, the progress of truth in the soul, 
the search for which is a Mason's labor, and the discovery 
of which is his reward. 




XXXI. 



THE LOST WORD. 



_ HE last of the symbols, depending for its exist- 
gj ence on its connection with a myth to which I 
\£_ J shall invite attention, is the Lost Word, and the 
search for it. Very appropriately may this symbol 
terminate our investigation's, since it includes within its 
comprehensive scope all the others, being itself the very 
essence of the science of masonic symbolism. The other 
symbols require for their just appreciation a knowledge 
of the origin of the order, because they owe their birth 
to its relationship with kindred and anterior institutions. 
But the symbolism of the Lost, Word has reference ex- 
clusively to the design and the objects of the institution. 

First, let us define the symbol, and then investigate its 
interpretation. 

The mythical history of Freemasonry informs us that 
there once existed a WORD of surpassing value, and 
claiming a profound veneration ; that this Word was 
known to but few ; that it was at length lost ; and that 
a temporary substitute for it was adopted. But as the 



THE LOST WORD. 3OI 

very philosophy of Masonry teaches us that there can be 
no death without a resurrection, — no decay without a 
subsequent restoration, — on the same principle it fol- 
lows that the loss of the Word must suppose its eventual 
recovery. 

Now, this it is, precisely, that constitutes the myth of 
the Lost Word and the search for it. No matter what 
was the word, no matter how it was lost, nor why a sub- 
stitute was provided, nor when nor where it was recov- 
ered. These are all points of subsidiary importance, 
necessary, it is true, for knowing the legendary history, 
but not necessary for understanding the symbolism. The 
only term of the myth that is to be regarded in the study 
of its interpretation, is the abstract idea of a word lost 
and afterwards recovered. 

This, then, points us to the goal to which we must 
direct our steps in the pursuit of the investigation. 

But the symbolism, referring- in this case, as I have 
already said, solely to the great design of Freemasonry, 
the nature of that design at once suggests itself as a pre- 
liminary subject of inquiry in the investigation. 

What, then, is the design of Freemasonry? A very 
large majority of its disciples, looking only to its practi- 
cal results, as seen in the every-day business of life, — to 
the noble charities which it dispenses, to the tears of 
widows which it has dried, to the cries of orphans which 
it has hushed, to the wants of the destitute which it has 
supplied, — arrive with too much rapidity at the conclu- 
sion that Charity, and that, too, in its least exalted sense 
of eleemosynary aid, is the great design of the institution. 

Others, with a still more contracted view, remembering 
the pleasant reunions at their lodge banquets, the unre- 



302 THE LOST WORD. 

served communications which are thus encouraged, and 
the solemn obligations of mutual trust and confidence 
that are continually inculcated, believe that it was intend- 
ed solely to promote the social sentiments and cement the 
bonds of friendship. 

But, although the modern lectures inform us that 
Brotherly Love and Relief are two of " the principal 
tenets of a Mason's profession," yet, from the same au- 
thority, we learn that Truth is a third and not less im- 
portant one ; and Truth, too, not in its old Anglo-Saxon 
meaning of fidelity to engagements,* but in that more 
strictly philosophical one in which it is opposed to intel- 
lectual and religious error or falsehood. 

But I have shown that the Primitive Freemasonry of 
the ancients was instituted for the purpose of preserving 
that truth which had been originally communicated to the 
patriarchs, in all its integrity, and that the Spurious Ma- 
sonry, or the Mysteries, originated in the earnest need of 
the sages, and philosophers, and priests, to find again the 
same truth which had been lost by the surrounding mul- 
titudes. I have shown, also, that this same truth contin- 
ued to be the object of the Temple Masonry, which was 
formed by a union of the Primitive, or Pure, and the 
Spurious systems. Lastly, I have endeavored to demon- 
strate that this truth related to the nature of God and the 
human soul. 

The search, then, after this truth, I suppose to consti- 
tute the end and design of Speculative Masonry. From 
the very commencement of his career, the aspirant is by 
significant symbols and expressive instructions directed to 

* Bosworth {Aug. Sax. Dict.~) defines treoivth to signify " troth, 
truth, treaty, league, pledge, covenant." 



THE LOST WORD. 303 

the acquisition of this divine truth ; and the whole lesson, 
if not completed in its full extent, is at least well devel- 
oped in the myths and legends of the Master's degree. 
God and the soul — the unity of the one and the immor- 
tality of the other — afe the great truths, the search for 
which is to constitute the constant occupation of every 
Mason, and which, when found, are to become the chief 
corner-stone, or the stone of foundation, of the spiritual 
temple — "the house not made with hands" — which he 
is engaged in erecting. 

Now, this idea of a search after truth forms so promi- 
nent a part of the whole science of Freemasonry, that I 
conceive no better or more comprehensive answer could 
be given to the question, What is Freemasonry? than to 
say that, it is a science which is engaged in the search 
after divine truth. 

But Freemasonry is eminently a system of symbolism, 
and all its instructions are conveyed in symbols. It is, 
therefore, to be supposed that so prominent and so pre- 
vailing an idea as this, — one that constitutes, as I have 
said, the whole design of the institution, and which may 
appropriately be adopted as the very definition of its 
science, — could not with any consistency be left without 
its particular symbol. 

The WORD, therefore, I conceive to be the symbol of 
Divine Truth; and all its modifications — the loss, the 
substitution, and the recovery — are but component parts 
of the mythical symbol which represents a search after 
truth. 

How, then, -is this symbolism preserved? How is the 
whole history of this Word to be interpreted, so as to bear, 
in all its accidents of time, and place, and circumstance, 



304 THE LOST WORD. 

a patent reference to the substantive idea that has been 
symbolized? 

The answers to these questions embrace what is, per- 
haps, the most intricate as well as most ingenious and 
interesting portion of the science of masonic symbolism. 

This symbolism may be interpreted, either in an appli- 
cation to a general or to a special sense. 

The general application will embrace the whole history 
of Freemasonry, from its inception to its consummation. 
The search after the Word is an epitome of the intellec- 
tual and religious progress of the order, from the period 
when, by the dispersion at Babel, the multitudes were 
enshrouded in the profundity of a moral darkness where 
truth was apparently forever extinguished. The true 
name of God was lost ; his true nature was not under- 
stood ; the divine lessons imparted by our father Noah 
were no longer remembered ; the ancient traditions were 
now corrupted ; the ancient symbols were perverted. 
Truth was buried beneath the rubbish of Sabaism, and 
the idolatrous adoration of the sun and stars had taken 
the place of the olden worship of the true God. A moral 
darkness was now spread over the face of the earth, as a 
dense, impenetrable cloud, which obstructed the rays of 
the spiritual sun, and covered the people as with a gloomy 
pall of intellectual night. 

But this night was not to last forever. A brighter dawn 
was to arise, and amidst all this gloom and darkness there 
were still to be found a few sages in whom the religious 
sentiment, working in them with powerful throes, sent forth 
manfully to seek after truth. There were, even in those 
days of intellectual and religious darkness, craftsmen who 
were willing to search for the Lost Wo?'d. And though 



THE LOST WORD. 2>°5 

they were unable to find it, their approximation to truth 
was so near that the result of their search may well be 
symbolized by the Substitute Word. , 

It was among the idolatrous multitudes that the Word 
had been lost. It was among them that the Builder had 
been smitten, and that the works of the spiritual temple 
had been suspended ; and so, losing at each successive 
stage of their decline, more and more of the true knowl- 
edge of God and of the pure religion which had originally 
been imparted by Noah, they finally arrived at gross ma- 
terialism and idolatry, losing all sight of the divine exist- 
ence. Thus it was that the truth — the Word — was said 
to have been, lost ; or, to apply the language of Hutchin- 
son, modified in its reference to the time, " in this situa- 
tion, it might well be said that the guide to heaven was 
lost, and the master of the works of righteousness was 
smitten. The nations had given themselves up to the 
grossest idolatry, and the service of the true God was 
effaced from the memory of those who had yielded them- 
selves to the dominion of sin." 

And now it was among the philosophers and priests in 
the ancient Mysteries, or the spurious Freemasonry, that 
an anxiety to discover the truth led to the search for the 
Lost Word. These were the craftsmen who saw the fatal 
blow which had been given, who knew that the Word 
was now lost, but were willing to go forth, manfully and 
patiently, to seek its restoration. And there were the 
craftsmen who, failing to rescue it from the grave of 
oblivion into which it had fallen, by any efforts of their 
own incomplete knowledge, fell back upon the dim 
traditions which had been handed down from primeval 
times, and through their aid found a substitute for truth 
in their own philosophical religions. 



306 THE LOST WORD. 

And hence Schmidtz, speaking of these Mysteries of 
the pagan world, calls them the remains of the ancient 
Pelasgian religion, and says that " the associations of 
persons for the purpose of celebrating them must there- 
fore have been formed at the time when the overwhelm- 
ing influence of the Hellenic religion began to gain the 
upper hand in Greece, and when persons who still enter- 
tained a reverence for the worship of former times united 
together, with the intention of preserving and upholding 
among themselves as much as possible of the religion of 
their forefathers." 

Applying, then, our interpretation in a general sense, 
the Word itself being the symbol of Divine Truth, the 
narrative of its loss and the search for its recovery be- 
comes a mythical symbol of the decay and loss of the true 
religion among the ancient nations, at and after the dis- 
persion on the plains of Shinar, and of the attempts of the 
wise men, the philosophers, and priests, to find and retain 
it in their secret Mysteries and initiations, which have 
hence been designated as the Spurious Freemasonry of 
Antiquity. 

But I have said that there is a special, or individual, 
as well as a general interpretation. This compound or 
double symbolism, if I may so call it, is by no means un- 
usual in Freemasonry. I have already exhibited an illus- 
tration of it in the symbolism of Solomon's temple, where, 
in a general sense, the temple is viewed as- a symbol of 
that spiritual temple formed by the aggregation of the 
whole order, and in which each mason is considered as 
a stone ; and, in an individual or special sense, the same 
temple is considered as a type of that spiritual temple 
which each mason is directed to erect in his heart. 



THE LOST WORD. T>°7 

Now, in this special or individual interpretation, the 
Word, with its accompanying myth of a loss, a substitute, 
and a recovery, becomes a symbol of the personal prog- 
ress of a candidate from his first initiation to the comple- 
tion of his course, when he receives a full development 
of the Mysteries. 

The aspirant enters on this search after truth, as an 
Entered Apprentice, in darkness, seeking for light — the 
light of wisdom, the light of truth, the 'light symbolized 
by the Word. For this important task, upon which he 
starts forth gropingly, falteringly, doubtingty, in want 
and in weakness, he is prepared by a purification of the 
heart, and is invested with a first substitute for the true 
Word, which, like the pillar that went before the Israel- 
ites in the wilderness, is to guide him onwards in his 
weary journey. He is directed to take, as a staff and 
scrip for his journey, all those virtues which expand the 
heart and dignify the soul. Secrecy, obedience, humility, 
trust in God, purity of conscience, economy of time, are 
all inculcated by impressive types and symbols, which 
connect the first degree with the peric^J of youth. 

And then, next in the degree of Fellow Craft, he fairly 
enters*, upon his journey. Youth has now passed, and 
manhood has come on. New duties and increased obli- 
gations press"-upon the individual. The thinking and 
working stage of life is here symbolized. Science is to 
be cultivated ; wisdom is to be acquired ; the lost Word — 
divine truth — is still to be sought for. But even yet it 
is not to be found. 

And now the Master Mason comes, with all the sym- 
bolism around him of old age — trials, sufferings, death. 
And here, too, the aspirant, pressing onward, always 



308 THE LOST WORD. 

onward, still cries aloud for " light, more light." The 
search is almost over, but the lesson, humiliating to human 
nature, is- to be taught, that in this life — gloomy and 
dark, earthly and carnal — pure truth has no abiding 
place ; and contented with a substitute, and to that second 
temple of eternal life, for that true Word, that divine 
Truth, which will teach us all that we shall ever learn of 
God and his emanation, the human soul. 

So, the Master Mason, receiving this substitute for the 
lost Word, waits with patience for the time when it shall 
be found, and perfect wisdom shall be attained. 

But, work as we will, this symbolic Word — this 
knowledge of divine Truth — is never thoroughly at- 
tained in this life, or in its symbol, the Master Mason's 
lodge. The corruptions of mortality, which encumber 
and cloud the human intellect, hide it, as with a thick 
veil, from mortal eyes. It is only, as I have just said* 
beyond the tomb, and when released from the earthly 
burden of life, that man is capable of fully receiving and 
appreciating the revelation. Hence, then, when we 
speak of the recovery of the Word, in that higher degree 
which is a supplement to Ancient Craft Masonry, we inti- 
mate that that sublime portion of the masonic system is 
a symbolic representation of the state after death. For 
it is only after the decay and fall of this temple of life, 
which, as masons, we have been building, that from its 
ruins, deep beneath its foundations, and in the profound 
abyss of the grave, we find that divine truth, in the search 
for which life was spent, if not in vain, at least without 
success, and the mystic key to which death only could 
supply. 

And now we know by this symbolism what is meant 



THE LOST WORD. 309 

by masonic labor, which, too, is itself but another form 
of the same symbol. The search for the Word — to find 
divine Truth — this, and this only, is a mason's work, and 
the WORD is his reward. 

Labor, said the old monks, is worship — laborare est 
orai-e ; and thus in our lodges do we worship, working 
for the Word, working for the Truth, ever looking forward, 
casting no glance behind, but cheerily hoping for the con- 
summation and the reward of our labor in the knowledge 
which is promised to him who plays no laggard's part. 

Goethe, himself a mason and a poet, knew and felt all 
this symbolism of a mason's life and work, when he wrote 
that beautiful poem, which Carlyle has thus thrown into 
his own rough but impulsive language. * 

"The mason's ways are 
A type of existence, — 
And to his persistence 
Is as the daj's are 
Of men in this world. 

" The future hides in it ** 
Gladness and sorrow; 
We press still thorow, 
Nought that abides in it 
Daunting us — onward. 

/ 

"And solemn before us 
Veiled the dark portal, 
Goal of all mortal ; 
Stars silent rest o'er us 
Graves under us silent. 

"While earnest thou gazest 
Come boding of terror, 
Comes phantasm and error, 
Perplexing the bravest 
With doubt and misgiving. 



3IO THE LOST WORD. 

" But heard are the voices, 
Heard are the sages, 
The worlds and the ages; 
' Choose well ; jour choice is 
Brief and yet endless. 

" ' Here eyes do regard you, 
In eternity's stillness; 
Here is all fullness, 
Ye, brave to reward you ; 
Work and despair not.'" 



And now, in concluding this work, so inadequate to 
the importance of the subjects that have been discussed, 
one deduction, at least, may be drawn from all that has 
been said. 

In tracing the progress of Freemasonry, and in detailing 
its system of symbolism, it has been found to be so inti- 
mately connected with the history of philosophy, of 
religion, and of art, in all ages of the world, that the 
conviction at once forces itself upon the mind, that no 
mason can expect thoroughly to comprehend its nature, 
or to appreciate its character as a science, unless he shall 
devote himself, with some labor and assiduity, to this study 
of its system. That skill which consists in repeating, 
with fluency and precision, the ordinary lectures, in 
complying with all the ceremonial requisitions of the 
ritual, or the giving, with sufficient accuracy, the ap- 
pointed modes of recognition, pertains only to the very 
rudiments of the masonic science. 

But there is a far nobler series of doctrines with which 
Freemasonry is connected, and which it has been my 
object, in this work, to present in some imperfect way. 
It is these which constitute the science and the philosophy 



THE LOST WORD. 3H 

of Freemasonry, and it is these alone which will return 
the student who devotes himself to the task, a sevenfold 
reward for his labor. 

Freemasonry, viewed no longer, as too long it has been, 
as a merely social institution, has now assumed its original 
and undoubted position as a speculative science. While 
the mere ritual is still carefully preserved, as the casket 
should be which contains so bright a jewel ; while its 
charities are still dispensed as the necessary though inci- 
dental result of all its moral teachings ; while its social 
tendencies are still cultivated as the tenacious cement 
which is to unite so fair a fabric in symmetry and 
strength, the masonic mind is everywhere beginning to 
look and ask for something, which, like the manna in 
the desert, shall feed us, in our pilgrimage, with intel- 
lectual food. The universal cry, throughout the masonic 
world, is for light; our lodges are henceforth to be 
schools ; our labor is to be study ; our wages are to be 
learning ;" the types and symbols, the myths and allego- 
ries, of the institution are beginning to be investigated 
with reference to their ultimate meaning ; our history is 
now traced by zealous inquiries as to its connection with 
antiquity ; and Freemasons now thoroughly understand 
that often quoted definition, that " Masonry is a science 
of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols." 

Thus to learn Masonry is to know our work and to do 
it well. What true mason would shrink from the task? 




Synoptical Index. 



Page 
Ab. The Hebrew word -J*, ab, signifies "father," and was among 
the Hebrews a title of honor. From it, by the addition of 
the possessive pronoun, is compounded the word Abif, sig- 
nifying " his father," and applied to the Temple Builder. . 56 
Abif. See Hiram Abif. 

Abnet. The band or apron, made of fine linen, variously 
wrought, and worn by the Jewish priesthood. It seems to 
have been borrowed directly from the Egyptians, upon the 
representations of all of whose gods is to be found a simi- 
lar girdle. Like the zennaar, or sacred cord of the Brah- 
mins, and the white shield of the Scandinavians, it is the 

analogue of the masonic apron. 130 

Acacia, Sprig of. No symbol is more interesting to the ma- 
sonic student than the sprig of acacia. .... 217 

It is the mimosa nilotica of Linnseus, the shittah of the He- 
brew writers, and grows abundantly in Palestine. . . 250 

It is preeminently the symbol of the immortality of the soul. 251 

It was for this reason planted by the Jews at the head of a 
grave 252 

This symbolism is derived from its never-fading character as 
an evergreen 253 

It is also a symbol of innocence, and this symbolism is de- 
rived from the double meaning of the word uxaxia, which in 
Greek signifies the plant, and innocence ; in this point of 
view Hutchinson has Christianized the symbol. . . . 254 



314 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

It is, lastly, a symbol of initiation. . . . / . 256 
This symbolism is derived from the fact that it is the sacred 
plant of Masonry; and in all the ancient rites there were 
sacred plants, which became in each rite the respective sym- 
bol of initiation into its Mysteries ; hence the idea was bor- 
rowed by Freemasonry 257 

Adonia. The Mysteries of Adonis, principally celebrated in 
Phoenicia and Syria. They lasted for two days, and were 
commemorative of the death and restoration of Adonis. 
The ceremonies of the first day were funereal in their char- 
acter, and consisted in the lamentations of the initiates for 
the death of Adonis, whose picture or image was carried in 
procession. The second day was devoted to mirth and joy 
for the return of Adonis to life. In their spirit and their 
mystical design, these Mysteries bore a very great resem- 
blance to the third degree of Masonry, and they are quoted 
to show the striking analogy between the ancient and the 
modern initiations 42 

Adonis. In mythology, the son of Cinyras and Myrrha, who 
was greatly beloved by Venus, or Aphrodite. He was slain 
by a wild boar, and having descended into the realm of 
Pluto, Persephone became enamoured of him. This led 
to a contest for him between Venus and Persephone, which 
was finally settled by his restoration to life upon the con- 
dition that he should spend six months upon earth, and six 
months in the inferior regions. In the mythology of the phi- 
losophers, Adonis was a symbol of the sun; but his death 
by violence, and his subsequent restoration to life, make 
him the analogue of Hiram Abif in the masonic system, 
and identify the spirit of the initiation in his Mysteries, 
which was to teach the second life with that of the third 
degree of Freemasonry. . 42 

Ahriman, or Arimanes. In the religious system of Zoroaster, 
the principle of evil, or darkness, which was perpetually 
opposing Ormuzd, the principle of good, or light. See Zo- 
roaster. 154 

Alfader. The father of all, or the universal Father. The 

principal deity of the Scandinavian mythology. . . 184 

The Edda gives twelve names of God, of which Alfader is 
the first and most ancient, and is the one most generally 
used. 

Algabil. One of the names of the Supreme Being among the 
Cabalists. It signifies "the Master Builder," and is equiv- 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 315 

alent to the masonic epithet of " Grand Architect of the 
Universe." 122 

Allegory. A discourse or narrative, in which there is a literal 
and a figurative sense, a patent and a concealed meaning; 
the literal or patent sense being intended by analogy or com- 
parison to indicate the figurative or concealed one. Its der- 
ivation from the Greek akkog and ayoqav, to say something 
different, that is, to say something where the language is 
one thing, and the true meaning different, exactly expresses 
the character of an allegory. It has been said in the text 
that there is no essential diiference between an allegory and 
a symbol. There is not in design, but there is this in their 
character : An allegory may be interpreted without any pre- 
vious conventional agreement, but a symbol cannot. Thus 
the legend of the third degree is an allegory evidently to be 
interpreted as teaching a restoration to life ; and this we 
learn from the legend itself, without any previous under- 
standing. The sprig of acacia is a symbol of the immor- 
tality of the soul. But this we know only because such 
meaning had been conventionally determined when the sym- 
bol was first established. It is evident, then, that an alle- 
gory which is obscure is imperfect. The enigmatical mean- 
ing should be easy of interpretation ; and hence Lemiere, a 
French poet, has said, " L'allegorie habite un palais dia- 
phane " — Allegory lives in a transparent palace. All the 
legends of Freemasonry are more or less allegorical, and 
whatever truth there may be in some of them in an histor- 
ical point of view, it is only as allegories, or legendary sym- 
bols, that they are important. 75 

All-seeing Eye. A symbol of the third degree, of great an- 
tiquity. See Eye. 

Ancient Craft Masonry. The first three degrees of Free- 
masonry; viz., Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and 
Master Mason. They are so called because they alone are 
supposed to have been practised by the ancient craft. In 
the agreement between the two grand lodges of England in 
1813, the definition was made to include the Royal Arch de- 
gree. Now if by the " ancient craft" are meant the workmen 
at the first temple, the definition will be wrong, because the 
Royal Arch degree could have had no existence until the 
time of the building of the second temple. But if by the 
"ancient craft" is meant the body of workmen who intro- 
duced the rites of Masonry into Europe in the early ages of 



316 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

the history of the Order, then it will be correct ; because the 
Royal Arch degree always, from its origin until the middle 
of the eighteenth century, formed a part of the Master's. 
" Ancient Craft Masonry," however, in this country, is gen- 
erally understood to embrace only the first three degrees. . 124 

Anderson. James Anderson, D. D., is celebrated as the com- 
piler and editor of "The Constitutions of the Freemasons," 
published by order of the Grand Lodge of England, in 1723. 
A second edition was published by him in 1738. Shortly 
after, Anderson died, and the subsequent editions, of which 
there are several, have been edited by other persons. The 
edition of 1723 has become exceedingly rare, and copies of 
it bring fancy prices among the collectors of old masonic 
books. Its intrinsic value is derived only from the fact that 
it contains the first printed copy of the " Old Charges," 
and also the " General Regulations." The history of Ma- 
sonry which precedes these, and constitutes the body of the 
work, is fanciful, unreliable, and pretentious to a degree 
that often leads to absurdity. The craft are greatly indebt- 
ed to Anderson for his labors in reorganizing the institu- 
tion, but doubtless it would have been better if he had con- 
tented himself with giving the records of the Grand Lodge 
from 1717 to 1738 which are contained in his second edition, 
and with preserving for us the charges and regulations, which 
without his industry might have been lost. No masonic 
writer would now venture to quote Anderson as authority 
for the history of the Order anterior to the eighteenth cen- 
tury. It must also be added that in the republication of the 
old charges in the edition of 1738, he made several impor- 
tant alterations and interpolations, which justly gave some 
offence to the Grand Lodge, and which render the second 
edition of no authority in this respect. .... 228 

Animal "Worship. The worship of animals is a species of idol- 
atry that was especially practised by the ancient Egyptians. 
Temples were erected by this people in their honor, in which 
they were fed and cared for during life ; to kill one of them 
was a crime punishable with death ; and after death, they 
were embalmed, and interred in the catacombs. This wor- 
ship was derived first from the earlier adoration of the stars, 
to certain constellations of which the names of animals had 
been given; next, from an Egyptian tradition that the gods, 
being pursued by Typhon, had concealed themselves under 
the forms of animals ; and lastly, from the doctrine of the 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 



317 



metempsychosis, according to which there was a continual 
circulation of the souls of men and animals. But behind 
the open and popular exercise of this degrading worship the 
priests concealed a symbolism full of philosophical concep- 
tions. How this symbolism was corrupted and misinter- 
preted by the uninitiated people, is shown by Gliddon, and 
quoted in the text. ■ . .78 

Aphanism (Greek cupavitto, to conceal). In each of the initia- 
tions of the ancient Mysteries, there was a scenic repre- 
sentation of the death or disappearance of some god or hero, 
whose adventures constituted the legend of the Mystery. 
That part of the ceremony of initiation which related to and 
represented the death or disappearance was called the apli- 

anism. 44 

Freemasonry, which has in its ceremonial form been framed 
after the model of these ancient Mysteries, has also its aph- 
anism in the third degree 233 

Aporrheta (Greek oaioggfrd). The holy things in the ancient 
Mysteries which were known only to the initiates, and were 
not to be disclosed to the profane, were called the aporrheta. 
What are the aporrheta of Freemasonry? what are the 
arcana of which there can be no disclosure ? is a question 
that for some years past has given rise to much discussion 
among the disciples of the institution. If the sphere and 
number of these aporrheta be very considerably extended, 
it is evident that much valuable investigation by public dis- 
cussion of the science of Masonry will be prohibited. On 
the other hand, if the aporrheta are restricted to only a few 
points, much of the beauty, the permanency, and the effica- 
cy of Freemasonry, which are dependent on its organiza- 
tion as a secret and mystical association, will be lost. We 
move between Scylla and Charybdis, and it is difficult for a 
masonic writer to know how to steer so as, in avoiding too 
frank an exposition of the principles of the Order, not to 
fall by too much reticence into obscurity. The European 
Masons are far more liberal in their views of the obligation 
of secrecy than the English or the American. There are 
few things, indeed, which a French or German masonic 
writer will refuse to discuss with the utmost frankness. It 
is now beginning to be very generally admitted, and English 
and American writers are acting on the admission, that the 
only real aporrheta of Freemasonry are the modes of rec- 
ognition, and the peculiar and distinctive ceremonies of the 



318 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

Order; and to these last it is claimed that reference may be 
publicly made for the purposes of scientific investigation, 
provided that the reference be so made as to be obscure to 
the profane, and intelligible only to the initiated. . . 148 

Apron. The lambskin, or white leather apron, is the peculiar 

and distinctive badge of a mason. 131 

Its color must be white, and its material a lambskin. . . 132 
It is a symbol of purity, and it derives this symbolism from its 
color, white being symbolic of purity ; from its material, the 
lamb having the same symbolic character ; and from its use, 

which is to preserve the garments clean 135 

The apron, or abnet, worn by the Egyptian and the Hebrew 
priests, and which has been considered as the analogue of 
the masonic apron, is supposed to have been a symbol of 
authority ; but the use of the apron in Freemasonry origin- 
ally as an implement of labor, is an evidence of the deriva- 
tion of the speculative science from an operative art. . . 138 
Apuleils. Lucius Apuleius, a Latin writer, born at Mcdaura, 
in Africa, flourished in the reigns of the emperors Antoni- 
nus and Marcus Aurelius. His most celebrated book, en- 
titled " Metamorphoses, or the Golden Ass," was written, 
Bishop Warburton thinks, for the express purpose of rec- 
ommending the ancient Mysteries. He had been initiated 
into many of them, and his descriptions of them, and espe- 
cially of his own initiation into those of the Egyptian Isis, 
are highly interesting and instructive, and should be read 
by every student of the science of masonic symbolism. . 48 
Archetype. The principal type, figure, pattern, or example, 
whereby and whereon a thing is formed. In the science of 
symbolism, the archetype is the thing adopted as a symbol, 
whence the symbolic idea is derived. Thus we say the tem- 
ple is the archetype of the lodge, because the former is the 
symbol whence all the temple symbolism of the latter is de- 
rived 162 

Architecture. The art which teaches the proper method of 
constructing public and private edifices. It is to Freema- 
sonry the " ars artium," the art of arts, because to it the 
institution is indebted for its origin in its present organiza- 
tion. The architecture of Freemasonry is altogether relat- 
ed to the construction of public edifices, and principally 
sacred or religious ones, — such as temples, cathedrals, 
churches, — and of these, masonicaily, the temple of Solo- 
mon is the archetype. Much of the symbolism of Freema- 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 319 

sonry is drawn from the art of architecture. "While the 
improvements of Greek and Roman architecture are recog- 
nized in Freemasonry, the three ancient orders, the Doric, 
Ionic, and Corinthian are alone symbolized. No symbolism 
attaches to the Tuscan and Composite. .... 222 

Ark of the Covenant. One of the most sacred objects among 
the Israelites. It was a chest made of shittim wood, or 
acacia, richly decorated, forty-five inches long, and eigh- 
teen inches wide, and contained the two tables of stone on 
which the ten commandments were engraved, the golden 
pot that held manna, and Aaron's rod. It was placed in the 
holy of holies, first of the tabernacle, and then of the tem- 
ple. Such is its masonic and scriptural history. The idea 
of this ark was evidently borrowed from the Egyptians, in 
whose religious rites a similar chest or coffer is to be found. 
Herodotus mentions several instances. Speaking of the fes- 
tival of Papremis, he says (ii. 63) that the image of the god 
was kept in a small wooden shrine covered with plates of 
gold, which shrine was conveyed in a procession of the priests 
and people from the temple into a second sacred building. 
Among the sculptures are to be found bass reliefs of the ark 
of Isis. The greatest of the religious ceremonies of the 
Egyptians was the procession of the shrines mentioned in 
the Eosetta stone, and which is often found depicted on the 
sculptures. These shrines were of two kinds, one a can- 
opy, but the other, called the great shrine, was an ark or 
sacred boat. It was borne on the shoulders of priests by 
means of staves passing through rings in its sides, and was 
taken into the temple and deposited on a stand. Some of 
these arks contained, says Wilkinson {Notes to Herod. II. 58, 
n. 9), the elements of life and stability, and others the 
sacred beetle of the sun, overshadowed by the wings of two 
figures of the goddess Thmei. In all this we see the type of 
the Jewish ark. The introduction of the ark into the cer- 
emonies of Freemasonry evidently is in reference to its loss 
and recovery; and hence its symbolism is to be interpreted 
as connected with the masonic idea of loss and recovery, 
which always alludes to a loss of life and a recovery of im- 
mortality. In the first temple of this life the ark is lost ; in 
the second temple of the future life it is recovered. And 
thus the ark of the covenant is one of the many masonic 
symbols of the resurrection. . . . ... .81 

Arts and Sciences, Liberal. In the seventh century, and 



320 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

for many centuries afterwards, all learning was limited to 
and comprised in what were called the seven liberal arts 
and sciences ; namely, grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, 
geometry, music, and astronomy. The epithet "liberal" is 
a fair translation of the Latin " ingenuus," which means 
"free-born;" thus Cicero speaks of the "artes ingenuae," 
or the arts befitting a free-born man ; and Ovid says in the 
well-known lines, — 

" Ingenuas didieisse fideliter artes 
Emollit mores nee siuit esse feros," — 

To have studied carefully the liberal arts refines the man- 
ners, and prevents us from being brutish. And Phillips, in 
his " New World of Words " (1706), defines the liberal arts 
and sciences to be " such as are fit for gentlemen and schol- 
ars, as mechanic trades and handicrafts for meaner peo- 
ple." As Freemasons are required by their landmarks to 
he. free-born, we see the propriety of incorporating the arts 
of free-born men among their symbols. As the system of 
Masonry derived its present form and organization from the 
times when the study of these arts and sciences constituted 
the labors of the wisest men, they have very appropriately 
been adopted as the symbol of the completion of human 
learning 223 

Ashlar. In builders' language, a stone taken from the quar- 
ries 90 

Ashlar, Perfect. A stone that has been hewed, squared, and 
polished, so as to be fit for use in the building. Masonical- 
ly, it is a symbol of the state of perfection attained by means 
of education. And as it is the object of Speculative Ma- 
sonry to produce this state of perfection, it may in that 
point of view be also considered as a symbol of the social 
character of the institution of Freemasonry. . . .90 

Ashlar, Rough. A stone in its rude and natural state. Ma- 
sonically, it is a symbol of men's natural state of ignorance. 
But if the perfect ashlar be, in reference to its mode of prep- 
aration, considered as a symbol of the social character of 
Freemasonry, then the rough ashlar must be considered as 
a symbol of the profane world. In this species of symbol- 
ism, the rough and perfect ashlars bear the same relation 
to each other as ignorance does to knowledge, death to life, 
and light to darkness. The rough ashlar is the profane, the 
perfect ashlar is the initiate. 89 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 



321 



Ashmole, Elias. A celebrated antiquary of England, who was 
born in 1617. He has written an autobiography, or rather 
diary of his life, which extends to within eight years of his 
death. Under the date of October 16, 1646, he has made 
the following entry: "I was made a Eree-Mason at War- 
rington, in Lancashire, with Col. Henry Mainwaring, of Car- 
ticham, in Cheshire ; the names of those that were then at 
the lodge : Mr. Eichard Eenket, warden ; Mr. James Col- 
lier, Mr. Eichard Sankey, Henry Littler, John Ellam and 
Hugh Brewer." Thirty-six years afterwards, under date of 
March 10, 1682, he makes the following entry : "I received 
a summons to appear at a lodge to be held the next day at 
Masons' Hall, in London. 11. Accordingly I went, and 
about noon was admitted into the fellowship of Freemasons 
by Sir William Wilson, Knight, Captain Eichard Borthwick, 
Mr William Woodman, Mr. William Grey, Mr. Samuel 
Taylour, and Mr. William Wise. I was the senior fellow 
among them (it being thirty-five years since I was admit- 
ted) ; there was present beside myself the fellows after 
named : Mr. Thomas Wise, master of the Masons' Compa- 
ny this year ; Mr. Thomas Shorthose, Mr. Thomas Shad- 
bolt, Waidsfford, Esq., Mr. Nicholas Young, Mr. John 

Shorthose, Mr. William Hamon, Mr. John Thompson, and 
Mr. William Stanton. We all dined at the Half-Moon Tav- 
ern, in Cheapside, at a noble dinner prepared at the charge 
of the new-accepted Masons." The titles of some of the 
persons named in these two receptions confirm what is 
said in the text, that the operative was at that time being 
superseded by the speculative element. It is deeply to be 
regretted that Ashmole did not carry out his projected de- 
sign of writing a history of Ereemasonry, for which it is 
said that he had collected abundant materials. His History 
of the Order of the Garter shows what we might have ex- 
pected from his treatment of the masonic institution. . . 6Q 

Aspirant. One who aspires to or seeks after the truth. The 

title given to the candidate in the ancient Mysteries. . . 43 

Athelstan. King of England, who ascended the throne in 924. 
Anderson cites the old constitutions as saying that he en- 
couraged the Masons, and brought many over from France 
and elsewhere. In his reign, and in the year 926, the cele- 
brated General Assembly of the Craft was held in the city of 
York, with Brince Edward, the king's brother, for Grand 
21 



322 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

Master, when new constitutions were framed. From' this 
assembly the York Rite dates its origin G4 

Autopsy (Greek aviowia, a seeing with one's own eyes). The 
complete communication of the secrets in the ancient Mys- 
teries, when the aspirant was admitted into the sacellum, or 
most sacred place, and was invested by the Hierophant with 
all the aporrheta, or sacred things, which constituted the 
perfect knowledge of the initiate. A similar ceremony in 
Freemasonry is called the Rite of Intrusting. . . .44 

Aum. The triliteral name of God in the Brahminical mysteries, 
and equivalent among the Hindoos to the tetragrammaton 
of the Jews. In one of the Puranas, or sacred books of 
the Hindoos, it is said, " All the rites ordained in the Vedas, 
the sacrifices to fire, and all other solemn purifications, shall 
pass away ; but that which shall never pass away is the word 
aum, for it is the symbol of the Lord of all things." . . 183 

B 

Babel. The biblical ■ account of the dispersion of mankind in 
consequence of the confusion of tongues at Babel, has been 
incorporated into the history of Masonry. The text has 
shown the probability that the pure and abstract principles 
of the Primitive Freemasonry had been preserved by Noah 
and his immediate descendants ; and also that, as a conse- 
quence of the dispersion, these principles had been lost or 
greatly corrupted by the Gentiles, who were removed from 
the influence and teachings of the great patriarch. . . 13 
Now there was in the old rituals a formula in the third de- 
gree, preserved in some places to the present day, which 
teaches that the candidate has come from the tower of Babel, 
where language was confounded and Masonry lost, and that 
he is travelling to the threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite, 
where language was restored and Masonry found. An at- 
tentive perusal of the nineteen propositions set forth in the 
preliminary chapter of this work will furnish the reader 
with a key for the interpretation of this formula. The prin- 
ciples of the Primitive Freemasonry of the early priesthood 
were corrupted or lost at Babel by the defection of a portion 
of mankind from Noah, the conservator of those principles. 
Long after, the descendants of this people united with those 
of Noah at the temple of Solomon, whose site was the thresh- 
ing-floor of Oman the Jebusite, from whom it had been 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 323 

bought by David ; and here the lost principles were restored 
by this union of the Spurious Freemasons of Tyre with the 
Primitive Ereemasons of Jerusalem. And this explains the 
latter clause of the formula. 28 

.Babylonish Captivity. When the city and temple of Jerusa- 
lem were destroyed by the army of Nebuchadnezzar, and 
the inhabitants conveyed as captives to Babylon, we have a 
right to suppose, — that is to say, if there be any truth in ma- 
sonic history, the deduction is legitimate, — that amongthese 
captives were many of the descendants of the workmen at 
the temple. If so, then they carried with them into captiv- 
ity the principles of Masonry which they had acquired at 
home, and the city of Babylon became the great seat of Spec- 
ulative Masonry for many years. It was during the captivity 
that the philosopher Pj'thagoras, who was travelling as a 
seeker after knowledge, visited Babylon. With his ardent 
thirst for wisdom, he would naturally hold frequent inter- 
views with the leading Masons among the Jewish captives. 
As he suffered himself to be initiated into the Mysteries of 
Egypt during his visit to that country, it is not unlikely that 
he may have sought a similar initiation into the masonic 
Mysteries. This would account for the many analogies and 
resemblances to Masonry that we find in the moral teach- 
ings, the symbols, and the peculiar organization of the 
school of Pythagoras — resemblances so extraordinary as 
to have justified, or at least excused, the rituals for calling 
the sage of Samos " our ancient brother.'* . . . .54 

Bacchus. One of the appellations of the " many-named" god 
Dionysus. The son of Jupiter and Semele was to the 
Greeks Dionysus, to the Eomans Bacchus. . . .46 

Bare Feet. A symbol of reverence when both feet are uncov- 
ered. Otherwise the symbolism is modern; and from the 
ritualistic explanation which is given in the first degree, it 
would seem to require that the single bare foot should be 
interpreted as the symbol of a covenant 125 

Black. Pythagoras called this color the symbol of the evil 
principle in nature. It was equivalent to darkness, which 
is the antagonist of light. But in masonic symbolism the 
interpretation is different. There, black is a symbol of 
grief, and always refers to the fate of the temple- builder. . 154 

BrahJIa. In the mythology of the Hindoos there is a trimurti, 
or trinity, the Supreme Being exhibiting himself in three 
manifestations ; as, Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Pre- 



324 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

server, and Siva the Destroyer, — the united godhead being 

a symbol of the sun . 28 

Brahma was a symbol of the rising sun, Siva of the sun at 
meridian, and Vishnu of the setting sun 108 

Bruce. The introduction of Freemasonry into Scotland has 
been attributed by some writers to King Robert Bruce, who 
is said to have established in 1314 the Order of Herodom, 
for the reception of those Knights Templars who had taken 
refuge in his dominions from the persecutions of the Pope 
and the King of France. Lawrie, who is excellent author- 
ity for Scottish Masonry, does not appear, however, to give 
any credit to the narrative. Whatever Bruce may have done 
for the higher degrees, there is no doubt that Ancient Craft 
Masonry was introduced into Scotland at an earlier period. 
See Kilwinning. Yet the text is right in making Bruce one 
of the patrons and encouragers of Scottish Freemasonry. . 64 

Bryant. Jacob Bryant, frequently quoted in this work, was a 
distinguished English antiquary, born in the year 1715, and 
deceased in 1804. His most celebrated work is " A New 
System of Ancient Mythology," which appeared in 1773-7G. 
Although objectionable on account of its too conjectural 
character, it contains a fund of details on the subject of sym- 
bolism, and may be consulted with advantage by the ma- 
sonic student. . . . • 41 

Builder. The chief architect of the temple of Solomon is 
often called "the Builder." But the word is also applied 
generally to the craft; for every Speculative Mason is as 
much a builder as was his operative predecessor. An Amer- 
ican writer (F. S. Wood, of Arkansas) thus alludes to tiiis 
symbolic idea. " Masons are called moral builders. In 
their rituals, they declare that a more noble and glorious 
purpose than squaring stones and hewing timbers is theirs, 
fitting immortal nature for that spiritual building not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens." And he adds, "The 
builder builds for a century ; masons for eternity." In this 
sense, " the builder" is the noblest title that can be bestowed 
upon a mason. ......... 52 

Bunyax, John. Familiar to every one as the author of the 
"Pilgrim's Progress." He lived in the seventeenth centu- 
ry, and was the most celebrated allegorical writer of Eng- 
land. His work entitled " Solomon's Temple Spiritual- 
ized" will supply the student of masonic symbolism with 
many valuable suggestions. . . 87 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 325 

c 

Cabala. The mystical philosophy of the Jews. The word 
which is derived from a Hebrew root, signifying to receive, 
has sometimes been used in an enlarged sense, as compre- 
hending all the explanations, maxims, and ceremonies which 
have been traditionally handed down to the Jews ; but in 
that more limited acceptation, in which it is intimately con- 
nected with the symbolic science of Freemasonry, the cab- 
ala may be defined to be a system of philosophy which em- 
braces certain mystical interpretations of Scripture, and 
metaphysical speculations concerning the Deity, man, and 
spiritual beings. In these interpretations and speculations, 
according to the Jewish doctors, were enveloped the most 
profound truths of religion, which, to be comprehended by 
finite beings, are obliged to be revealed through the medi- 
um of symbols and allegories. Buxtorf (Lex. Talm.) de- 
fines the Cabala to be a secret science, which treats in a 
mystical and enigmatical manner of things divine, angelical, 
theological, celestial, and metaphysical, the subjects being 
enveloped in striking symbols and secret modes of teaching. 154 

Cabalist. A Jewish philosopher. One who understands and 
teaches the doctrines of the Cabala, or the Jewish philoso- 
phy 154 

Cabiri. Certain gods, whose worship was first established in 
the Island of Samothrace, where the Cabiric Mysteries were 
practised until the beginning of the Christian era. They 
were four in number, and by some are supposed to have 
referred to Noah and his three sons. In the Mysteries there 
was a legend of the death and restoration to life of Atys, 
the son of Cybele. The candidate represented Cadmillus, 
the youngest of the Cabiri, who was slain by his three breth- 
ren. The legend of the Cabiric Mysteries, as far a« it can 
be understood from the faint allusions of ancient authors, 
was in spirit and design very analogous to that of the third 
degree of Masonry 256 

Cadmillus. One of the gods of the Cabiri, who was slain by 
his brothers, on which circumstance the legend of the Ca- 
biric or Samothracian Mysteries is founded. He is the ana- 
logue of the Builder in the Hiramic legend of Freemasonry. 256 

Cairns. Heaps of stones of a conical form, erected by the Dru- 
ids. Some suppose them to have been sepulchral monu- 
ments, others altars. They were undoubtedly of a religious 



326 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

character, since sacrificial fires were lighted upon them, and 
processions were made around them. These processions 
were analogous to the circumambulations in Masonry, and 
were conducted like them with reference to the apparent 
course of the sun. . 145 

Cassia. A gross corruption of Acacia. The cassia is an aro- 
matic plant, but it has no mystical or symbolic character. . 248 

Celtic Mysteries. The religious rites of ancient Gaul and 

Britain, more familiarly known as Druidism, which see. . 109 

Ceremonies. The outer garments which cover and adorn Free- 
masonry as clothing does the human body. . . . .10 
Although ceremonies give neither life nor truth to doctrines 
or principles, yet they have an admirable influence, since by 
their use certain things are made to acquire a sacred char- 
acter which they would not otherwise have had ; and hence 
Lord Coke has most wisely said that " prudent antiquity did, 
for more solemnity and better memory and observation of 
that which is to be done, express substances under ceremo- 
nies." 171 

Ceres. Among the Romans the goddess of agriculture ; but 
among the more poetic Greeks she became, as Demeter, the 
symbol of the prolific earth. See Demeter. . . .36 

Charter of Cologne. A masonic document of great celebri- 
ty, but not of unquestioned authenticity. It is a declara- 
tion or affirmation of the design and principles of Freema- 
sonry, issued in the year 1535, by a convention of masons 
who had assembled in the city of Cologne. The original is 
in the Latin language. The assertors of the authenticity of 
the document claim that it was found in the chest of a lodge 
at Amsterdam in 1G37, and afterwards regularly transmit- 
ted from hand to hand until the year 1816, when it was pre- 
sented to Prince Frederick of Nassau, through whom it was 
at that time made known to the masonic world. Others as- 
sert that it is a forgery, which was perpetrated about the year 
1816. Like the Leland manuscript, it is one of those vexed 
questions of masonic literary history over which so much 
doubt has been thrown, that it will probably never be sat- 
isfactorily solved. For a translation of the charter, and 
copious explanatory notes, by the author of this work, the 
reader is referred to the "American Quarterly Review of 
Freemasonry," vol. ii. p. 52. 64 

Christianization of Freemasonry. The interpretation of its 
symbols from a Christian point of view. This is an error 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 327 

into which Hutchinson and Oliver in England, and Scott 
and one or two others of less celebrity in this country, have 
fallen. It is impossible to derive Freemasonry from Chris- 
tianity, because the former, in point of time, preceded the 
latter. In fact, the symbols of Freemasonry are Solomonic, 
and its religion was derived from the ancient priesthood. . 237 
The infusion of the Christian element was, however, a natural 
result of surrounding circumstances ; yet to sustain it would 
be fatal to the cosmopolitan character of the institution. . 238 
Such interpretation is therefore modern, and does not belong 

to the ancient system. . 246 

Circular Temples. These were used in the initiations of the 
religion of Zoroaster. Like the square temples of Masonry, 
and the other Mysteries, they were symbolic of the world, 
and the symbol was completed by making the circumference 
of the circle a representation of the zodiac. . . . 108 

Circumambulation. The ceremony of perambulating the lodge, 
or going in procession around the altar, which was univer- 
sally practised in the ancient initiations and other religious 
ceremonies, and was always performed so that the persons 
moving should have the altar on their right hand. The rite 
was symbolic of the apparent daily course of the sun from 
the east to the west by the way of the south, and was un- 
doubtedly derived from the ancient sun-worship. . . 139 
Civilization. Freemasonry is a result of civilization, for it 
exists in no savage or barbarous state of society ; and in re- 
turn it has proved, by its social and moral principles, a means 
of extending and elevating the civilization which gave it 

birth 221 

Freemasonry is therefore a type of civilization, bearing the 
came relation to the profane world that civilization does to 

the savage state . . 222 

Colleges of Artificers. The Collegia Fabrorum, or Work- 
men's Colleges, were established in Rome by Numa, who 
for this purpose distributed all the artisans of the city into 
companies, or colleges, according to their arts and trades. 
They resembled the modern corporations, or guilds, which 
sprang up in the middle ages. The rule established by their 
founder, that not less than three could constitute a college, — 
"tres faciunt collegium," — has been retained in the regu- 
lations of the third degree of masonry, to a lodge of which 

these colleges bore other analogies 18 

Cologne, Charter of. See Charter of Cologne. 



328 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

Common Gatel. See Gavel. 

Consecration. The appropriating or dedicating, with certain 
ceremonies, anything to sacred purposes or offices, by sepa- 
rating it from common use. Masonic lodges, like ancient 
temples and modern churches, have always been consecrated. 
Hobbes, in his Leviathan (p. iv. c. 44), gives the best defi- 
nition of this ceremony. "To consecrate is in Scripture 
to offer, give, or dedicate, in pious and decent language and 
gesture, a man, or any other thing, to God, by separating it 
from common use." 172 

Consecration, Elements of. Those things, the use of which 
in the ceremony as constituent and elementary parts of it, 
are necessary to the perfecting and legalizing of the act of 
consecration. In Freemasonry, these elements of conse- 
cration are corn, wine, and oil, — which see. . . . 172 

Corn. One of the three elements of masonic consecration, and 
as a symbol of plenty it is intended, under the name of the 
" corn of nourishment," to remind us of those temporal 
blessings of life, support, and nourishment which we receive 
from the Giver of all good. ....... 173 

Corner Stone. The most important stone in the edifice, and 
in its symbolism referring to an impressive ceremony in the 

first degree of Masonry 159 

The ancients laid it with peculiar ceremonies, and among the 

Oriental nations it was the symbol of a prince, or chief. . 160 
It is one of the most impressive symbols of Masonry. . . 161 
It is a symbol of the candidate on his initiation. . . . 162 
As a symbol it is exclusively masonic, and confined to a tem- 
ple origin. 175 

Covering of the Lodge. Under the technical name of the 
"clouded canopy or starry-decked heavens," it is a symbol 
of the future world, — of the celestial lodge above, where 
the G. A. O. T. U. forever presides, and which constitutes 
the "foreign country" which every mason hopes to reach.. . 117 

Creuzer. George Frederick Creuzer, who was born in Ger- 
many in 1771, and was a professor at the University of Hei- 
delberg, devoted himself to the study of the ancient reli- 
gions, and with profound learning, established a peculiar 
system on the subject. Many of his views have been adopt- 
ed in the text of the present work. His theory was, that 
the religion and mythology of the ancient Greeks were bor- 
rowed from a far more ancient people, — a body of priests 
coming from the East, — who received them as a revelation. 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 329 

The myths and traditions of this ancient people were adopted 
by Hesiod, Homer, and the later poets, although not with- 
out some misunderstanding of them, and they were final- 
ly preserved in the Mysteries, and became subjects of 
investigation for the philosophers. This theory Creuzer 
has developed in his most important work, entitled " Sym- 
bolik und Mythologie der alten Volker, besonders der Greich- 
en," which was published at Leipsic in 1819. There is no 
translation of this work into English, but Guigniaut pub- 
lished at Paris, in 1824, a paraphrastic translation of it, under 
the title of " Religions de l'Antiquite considerees principale- 
ment dans leur Formes Symboliques et Mythologiques." 
Creuzer's views throw much light on the symbolic history 

of Freemasonry. 37 

Cross. No symbol was so universally diffused at an early pe- 
riod as the cross. It was, says Faber (Cabir. ii. 890), a 
symbol throughout the pagan world long previous to its be- 
coming an object of veneration to Christians. In ancient 
symbology it was a symbol of eternal life. M. de Mortillet, 
who in 1866 published a work entitled " Le Signe de la Croix 
avant le Christianisme," found in the very earliest epochs 
three principal symbols of universal occurrences; viz., the 
circle, the pyramid, and the cross. Leslie (Man's Origin 
and Destiny, p. 312), quoting from him in reference to the 
ancient worship of the cross, says " It seems to have been a 
worship of such a peculiar nature as to exclude the worship 
of idols." This sacredness of the crucial symbol may be 
one reason why its form was often adopted, especially by 
the Celts in the construction of their temples, though I have 
admitted in the text the commonly received opinion that in 
cross-shaped temples the four limbs of the cross referred to 
the four elements. But in a very interesting work lately 
published — "The Myths of the New World" (N. Y., 1863) 
— Mr. Brinton assigns another symbolism. " The symbol," 
says this writer, "that beyond all others has fascinated the 
human mind, the cross, finds here its source and mean- 
ing. Scholars have pointed out its Sacredness in many nat- 
ural religions, and have reverently accepted it as a mystery, 
or offered scores of conflicting, and often debasing, inter- 
pretations. It is but another symbol of the four cardinal 
points, the four winds of heaven. This will luminously ap- 
pear by a study of its use and meaning in America." (p. 95.) 
And Mr. Brinton gives many instances of the religious use 



330 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

of the cross by several of the aboriginal tribes of this con- 
tinent, where the allusion, it must be confessed, seems evi- 
dently to be to the four cardinal points, or the four winds, 
or four spirits, of tbe earth. If this be so, and if it is prob- 
able that a similar reference was adopted by the Celtic and 
other ancient peoples, then we would have in the cruciform 
temple as much a symbolism of the world, of which the 
four cardinal points constitute tbe boundaries, as we have 
in the square, the cubical, and the circular. . . . 107 

Cteis. A representation of the female generative organ. It 
was, as a symbol, always accompanied by the phallus, and, 
like that symbol, was extensively venerated by the nations 
of antiquity. It was a symbol of the prolific powers of na- 
ture. See Phallus 113 

Cube. A geometrical figure, consisting of six equal sides and 
six equal angles. It is the square solidified, and was among 
the ancients a symbol of truth. The same symbolism is 
recognized in Freemasonry. 163 

D 

Darkness. It denotes falsehood and ignorance, and was a very 

universal symbol among the nations of antiquity. . . 149 

In all the ancient initiations, the aspirant was placed in dark- 
ness for a period differing in each, — among the Druids for 
three days, among the Greeks for twenty-seven, and in the 
Mysteries of Mithras for fifty 155 

In all of these, as well as in Freemasonry, darkness is the 
symbol of initiation not complete. . . . . . 156 

Death. Because it was believed to be the entrance to a better 
and eternal life, which was the dogma of the Mysteries, 
death became the symbol of initiation ; and hence among 
the Greeks the same word signified to die, and to be initiat- 
ed. In the British Mysteries, says Davies (Mythol. of the 
British Druids), the novitiate passed the river of death in the 
boat of Garanhir, the Charon of the Greeks ; and before he 
could be admitted to this privilege, it was requisite that he 
should have been mystically buried, as well as mystically 

dead 157 

Definition of Freemasonry. The definition quoted in the 
text, that it is a science of morality, veiled in allegory and 
illustrated by symbols, is the one which is given in the Eng- 
lish lectures. 10 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 33 1 

But a more comprehensive and exact definition is, that it is a 
science which is engaged in the search after divine truth. . 303 

Delta. In the higher degrees of Masonry, the triangle is so 
called because the Greek letter of that name is of a triangu- 
lar form. . • 195 

It is a symbol of Deity, because it is the first perfect figure in 
geometry ; it is the first figure in which space is enclosed by 
lines 196 

Demetee. Worshipped by the Greeks as the symbol of the pro- 
lific earth. She was the Ceres of the Romans. To her is 
attributed the institution of the Eleusinian Mysteries in 
Greece, the most popular of all the ancient initiations. . 36 

Design of Freemasonry. It is not charity or almsgiving. . 264 
Nor the cultivation of the social sentiment ; for both of these 

are merely incidental to its organization 265 

But it is the search after truth, and that truth is the unity of 
God, and the immortality of the soul 303 

Dieseal. A term used by the Druids to designate the circum- 
ambulation around the sacred cairns, and is derived from 
two words signifying " on the right of the sun," because the 
circumambulation was always in imitation of the course of 
the sun, with the right hand next to the cairn or altar. . 145 

Dionysiac Artificers. An association of architects who pos- 
sessed the exclusive privilege of erecting temples and other 
public buildings in Asia Minor. The members were distin- 
guished from the uninitiated inhabitants by the possession 
of peculiar marks of recognition, and by the secret charac- 
ter of their association. They were intimately connected 
with the Dionysiac Mysteries, and are supposed to have fur- 
nished the builders for the construction of the temple of 
Solomon 45 

Dionysiac Mysteries. In addition to what is said in the text, 
I add the following, slightly condensed, from the pen of that 
accomplished writer, Albert Pike: "The initiates in these 
Mysteries had preserved the ritual and ceremonies that ac- 
corded with the simplicity of the earliest ages, and the man- 
ners of the first men. The rules of Pythagoras were fol- 
lowed there. Like the Egyptians, who held wool unclean, 
they buried no initiate in woollen garments. They abstained 
from bloody sacrifices, and lived on fruits or vegetables. 
They imitated the life of the contemplative sects of the Ori- 
ent. One of the most precious advantages promised by 
their initiation was to put man in communion with the gods 



332 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

by purifying his soul of all the passions that interfere with 
that enjoyment, and dim the rays of divine light that are com- 
municated to every soul capable of receiving them. The 
sacred gates of the temple, where the ceremonies of initia- 
tion were performed, were opened but once in each year, 
and no stranger was allowed to enter. Night threw her veil 
over these august Mysteries. There the sufferings of Dio- 
nysus were represented, who, like Osiris, died, descended 
to hell, and rose to life again ; and raw flesh was distributed 
to the initiates, which each ate in memory of the death of 
the deity torn in pieces by the Titans." . . . .45 

Dionysus. Or Bacchus; mythologically said to be the son of 
Zeus and Semele. In his Mysteries he was identified with 
Osiris, and regarded as the sun. Hi$ Mysteries prevailed 
in Greece, Rome, and Asia, and were celebrated by the Di- 
onysiac artificers — those builders who united with the Jews 
in the construction of King Solomon's temple. Hence, of 
all the ancient Mysteries, they are the most interesting to 
the masonic student. . 45 

Disseverance. The disseverance of the operative from the 
speculative element of Freemasonry occurred at the begin- 
ning of the eighteenth century. ...... 66 

Discalceatiox, Rite of. The ceremony of uncovering the 
feet, or taking off the shoes ; from the Latin discalceare. It 
is a symbol of reverence. See Bare Feet 125 

Druidical Mysteries. The Celtic Mysteries celebrated in 
Britain and Gaul. They resembled, in all material points, 
the other mysteries of antiquity, and had the same design. 
The aspirant was subjected to severe trials, underwent a 
mystical death and burial in imitation of the death of the 
god Hu, and was eventually enlightened by the communi- 
cation to him of the great truths of God and immortality, 
which it was the object of all the Mysteries to teach. . . 155 

Dualism. A mythological and philosophical doctrine, which 
supposes the world to have been always governed by two 
antagonistic principles, distinguished as the good and the 
evil principle. This doctrine pervaded all the Oriental re- 
ligions, and its influences are to be seen in the system of 
Speculative Masonry, where it is developed in the symbol- 
ism of Li^ht and Darkness. ...... 153 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 333 



E 



East. That part of the heavens where the sun rises ; and as 
the source of material light to which we figuratively apply 
the idea of intellectual light, it has been adopted as a sym- 
bol of the Order of Freemasonry. And this symbolism is 
strengthened by the fact that the earliest learning and the 
earliest religion came from the east, and have ever been 

travelling to the west 1C6 

In Freemasonry, the east has always been considered the most 
sacred of the cardinal points, because it is the place where 
light issues ; and it was originally referred to the primitive 
religion, or sun-worship. But in Freemasonry it refers 
especially to that east whence an ancient priesthood first 
disseminated truth to enlighten the world; wherefore the 
east is masonically called "the place of light." . . 203 

Egg. The mundane egg is a well-recognized symbol of the 
world. "The ancient pagans," says Faber, "in almost 
every part of the globe, were wont to symbolize the world 
by an egg. Hence this symbol is introduced into the cos- 
mogony of nearly all nations ; and there are few persons, 
even among those who have not made mythology their study, 
to whom the Mundane Egg is not perfectly familiar. It was 
employed not only to represent the earth, but also thejuni- 
verse in its largest extent." Origin of Pag. Idolatry, 
i. 175 107 

Egg and Lunette. The egg, being a symbol not only of the 
resurrection, but also of the world rescued from destruc- 
tion by the Noachic ark, and the lunette, or horizontal cres- 
cent, being a symbol of the Great Father, represented by 
Noah, the egg and lunette combined, which was the hiero- 
glyphic of the god Lunus, at Heliopolis, was a symbol of 
the world proceeding from the Great Father. . . . 107 

Egypt. Egypt has been considered as the cradle not only of the 
sciences, but of the religions of the ancient world. Al- 
though a monarchy, with a king nominally at the head of 
the state, the government really was in the hands of the 
priests, who were the sole depositaries of learning, and were 
alone acquainted with the religious formularies that in Egypt 
controlled all the public and private actions of the life of 
every inhabitant. 78 

Elephanta. An island in the Bay of Bombay, celebrated for 
the stupendous caverns artificially excavated out of the solid 



334 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

rock, which were appropriated to the initiations in the an- 
cient Indian Mysteries. 108 

Eleusinian Mysteries. Of all the Mysteries of the ancients 
these were the most popular. They were celebrated at the 
village of Eleusis, near Athens, and were dedicated to De- 
meter. In them the loss and the restoration of Persephone 
were scenically represented, and the doctrines of the unity 
of God and the immortality of the soul were taught. See 
Demeter .36 

Entered Apprentice. The first degree of Ancient Craft Ma- 
sonry, analogous to the aspirant in the Lesser Mysteries. . 93 
It is viewed as a symbol of childhood, and is considered as a 
preparation and purification for something higher. . . 218 

Epopt. (From the Greek tTtunrtjg, an eye witness.) One who, 
having been initiated in the Greater Mysteries of paganism, 
has seen the aporrheta. 44 

Era of Masonry. The legendary statement that the origin of 
Masonry is coeval with the beginning of the world, is only 
a philosophical myth to indicate the eternal nature of its 
principles 211 

Erica. The tree heath ; a sacred plant among the Egyptians, 
and used in the Osirian Mysteries as the symbol of immor- 
tality, and the analogue of the masonic acacia. . . . 258 

Essenes. A society or sect of the Jews, who combined labor 
with religious exercises, whose organization partook of a 
secret character, and who have been claimed to be the de- 
scendants of the builders of the temple of Solomon. . . 18 

Euclid. The masonic legend which refers to Euclid is alto- 
gether historically untrue. It is really a philosophical myth 
intended to convey a masonic truth. ..... 208 

Euresis. (From the Greek evysoig, a discovery.) That part 
of the initiation in the ancient Mysteries which represented 
the finding of the body of the god or hero whose death was 

the subject of the initiation. 44 

The euresis has been adopted in Freemasonry, and forms an 
essential part of the ritual of the third degree. . . . 234 

Evergreen. A symbol of the immortality of the soul. . . 251 
Planted by the Hebrews and other ancient peoples at the heads 

of graves 252 

For this purpose the Hebrews preferred the acacia, because its 
wood was incorruptible, and because, as the material of the 
ark. it was already considered as a sacred plant. . . 253 

Eye, All-seeing. A symbol of the omniscient and watchful 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 335 

providence of God. It is a very ancient symbol, and is sup- 
posed by some to be a relic of the primitive sun-worship. 
Volney says (Les Ruines, p. 186) that in most of the an- 
cient languages of Asia, the eye and the sun are expressed 
by the same word. Among the Egyptians the eye was the 
symbol of their supreme god, Osiris, or the sun. . . 192 



Faber. The works of the Eev. G. S. Faber, on the Origin of 
Pagan Idolatry, and on the Cabiri, are valuable contributions 
to the science of mythology. They abound in matters of 
interest to the investigator of masonic symbolism and phi- 
losophy, but should be read with a careful view of the pre- 
conceived theory of the learned author, who refers every- 
thing in the ancient religions to the influences of the 
Noachic cataclysm, and the arkite worship which he sup- 
poses to have resulted from it. 256 

Fellow Craft. The second degree of Ancient Craft Masonry, 

analogous to the mystes in the ancient Mysteries. . . 94 
The symbol of a youth setting forth on the journey of life. . 218 

Fetichism. The worship of uncouth and misshapen idols, 
practised only by the most ignorant and debased peoples, 
and to be found at this day among some of the least civil- 
ized of the negro tribes of Africa. " Their fetiches," says 
Du Chaillu, speaking of some of the African races, " con- 
sisted of fingers and tails of monkeys ; of human hair, skin, 
teeth, bones ; of clay, old nails, copper chains ; shells, feath- 
ers, claws, and skulls of birds ; pieces of iron, copper, or 
wood; seeds of plants, ashes of various substances, and I 
cannot tell what more." Equatorial Africa, p. 93. . . 24 

Fifteen. A sacred number, symbolic of the name of God, be- 
cause the letters of the holy name ;-p, jah, are equal, in the 
Hebrew mode of numeration by the letters of the alphabet, 
to fifteen; for h is equal to ten, and j-j is equal to five. 
Hence, from veneration for this sacred name, the Hebrews 
do not, in ordinary computations, when they wish to express 
the number 15, make use of these two letters, but of two 
others, which are equivalent to 9 and 6. ... 225 

Forty-seventh Problem. The forty-seventh problem of the 
first book of Euclid is, that in any right-angled triangle the 
square which is described upon the side subtending the right 
angle is equal to the squares described upon the sides which 






336 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

contain the right angle. It is said to have been discovered 
by Pythagoras while in Egypt, but was most probably taught 
to him by the priests of that country, in whose rites he had 
been initiated ; it is a symbol of the production of the world 
by the generative and prolific powers of the Creator ; hence 
the Egyptians made the perpendicular and base the repre- 
sentatives of Osiris and Isis, while the hypothenuse repre- 
sented their child Horus. Dr. Lardner says {Com. on Eu- 
clid, p. GO) of this problem, ''Whether we consider the 
forty-seventh proposition with reference to the peculiar and 
beautiful relation established by it, or to its innumerable 
uses in every department of mathematical science, or to its 
fertility in the consequences derivable from it, it must cer- 
tainly be esteemed the most celebrated and important in the 
whole of the elements, if not in the whole range of mathe- 
matical science." 193 

Fourteen. Some symbologists have referred the fourteen 
pieces into which the mutilated body of Osiris was divided, 
and the fourteen days during which the body of the builder 
was buried, to the fourteen days of the disappearance of the 
moon. The Sabian worshippers of " the hosts of heaven" 
were impressed with the alternate appearance and disappear- 
ance of the moon, which at length became a symbol of death 
and resurrection. Hence fourteen was a sacred number. As 
such it was viewed in the Osirian Mysteries, and may have 
been introduced into Freemasonry with other relics of the 
old worship of the sun and planets 40 

Freemasonry, Definition of. See Definition. 

Freemasons, Travelling. The travelling Freemasons were a 
society existing in the middle ages, and consisting of learned 
men and prelates, under whom were operative masons. The 
operative masons performed the labors of the craft, and 
travelling from country to country, were engaged in the con- 
struction of cathedrals, monasteries, and castles. " There 
are few points in the history of the middle ages," says God- 
win, "more pleasing to look back upon than the existence 
of the associated masons ; they are the bright spot in the 
general darkness of that period ; the patch of verdure when 
all around is barren." The Builder, ix. 463. . . .62 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 337 

a 

G. The use of the letter G in the Fellow Craft's degree is an 
anachronism. It is really a corruption of, or perhaps rather 
a substitution for, the Hebrew letter i (yod), which is the 
initial of the ineffable name. As such, it is a symbol of 
the life-giving and life-sustaining power of God. . . 190 

G. A. O. T. U. A masonic abbreviation used as a symbol of 
the name of God, and signifying the Grand Architect of the 
Universe. It was adopted by the Freemasons in accordance 
with a similar, practice among all the nations of antiquity of 
noting the Divine Name by a symbol 189 

Gavel. What is called in Masonry a common gavel is a stone- 
cutter's hammer ; it is one of the working tools of an En- 
tered Apprentice, and is a symbol of the purification of the 
heart 92 

Gloves. On the continent of Europe they are given to candi- 
dates at the same time that they are invested with the apron ; 
the same custom formerly prevailed in England ; but al- 
though the investiture of the gloves is abandoned as a cere- 
mony both there and in America,, they are worn as a part of 

masonic clothing. 137 

They are a symbol of purification of life 138 

In the middle ages gloves were worn by operative masons. . 139 

God, Unity of. See Unity of God. 

God, Name of. See Name. 

Golgotha. In Hebrew and Syriac it means a skull ; a name of 
Mount Calvary, and so called, probably, because it was the 
place of public execution. The* Latin Calvaria, whence 
Mount Calvary, means also a skull 242 

Grave. In the Master's degree, a symbol which is the analogue 

of the pastos, or couch, in the ancient Mysteries. . . 239 
The symbolism has been Christianized by some masonic wri- 
ters, and the grave has thus been referred to the sepulchre 
of Christ 240 

Grips and Signs. They are valuable only for social purposes 

as modes of recognition 213 

H 

Hand. The hand is a symbol of human actions ; pure hands 
symbolize pure actions, and impure or unclean hands sym- 
bolize impure actions 139 

22 



33$ SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

Hake. Among the Egyptians the hare was a hieroglyphic of 
eyes that are open, and was the symbol of initiation into the 
Mysteries of Osiris. The Hebrew word for hare is arnabet, 
and this- is compounded of two words that signify to behold 
the light. The connection of ideas is apparent. . . . 150 

Hellenism. The religion of the Helles, or ancient Greeks who 
immediately succeeded the Pelasgians in the settlement of 
that country. It was, in consequence of the introduction of 
the poetic element, more refined than the old Pelasgic wor- 
ship for which it was substituted. Its myths were more phil- 
osophical and less gross than those of the religion to which 
it succeeded. 47 

Herm^e. Stones of a cubical form, which were originally un- 
hewn, by which the Greeks at first represented all their dei- 
ties. They came in the progress of time to be especially 
dedicated by the Greeks to the god Hermes, whence the 
name, and by the Romans to the god Terminus, who pre- 
sided over landmarks. . 164 

Hero Worship. The worship of men deified after death. It 
is a theory of some, both ancient and modern writers, that 
all the pagan gods were once human beings, and that the 
legends and traditions of mythology are mere embellish- 
ments of the acts of these personages when alive. It was 
the doctrine taught by Euhemerus among the ancients, and 
has been maintained among the moderns by such distin- 
guished authorities as Bochart, Bryant, Voss, and Banier. 

Hermetic Philosophy. The system of the Alchemists, the 
Adepts, or seekers of the philosopher's stone. No system 
has been more misunderstood than this. It was secret, eso- 
teric, and highly symbolical. No one has so well revealed 
its true design as E. A. Hitchcock, who, in his delightful 
work entitled "Remarks upon Alchemy and the Alche- 
mists," says, " The genuine Alchemists were religious men, 
who passed their time in legitimate pursuits, earning an 
honest subsistence, and in religious contemplation, study- 
ing how to realize in themselves the union of the divine and 
human nature, expressed in man by an enlightened submis- 
sion to God's will ; and they thought out and published, after 
a manner of their own, a method of attaining or entering 
upon this state, as the only rest of the soul." There is a 
very great similarity between their doctrines and those of 
the Freemasons ; so much so that the two associations have 
sometimes been confounded. 273 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 339 

Hierophant. (From the Greek hnbg, holy, sacred, and t/iu/vw, 
to show.) One who instructs in sacred tilings ; the explain- 
er of the aporrheta, or secret doctrines, to the initiates in 
the ancient Mysteries. He was the presiding officer, and his 
rank and duties were analogous to those of the master of a 
masonic lodge. 

Hiram Abie. The architect of Solomon's temple. The word 
" Abif " signifies in Hebrew "his father," and is used by the 
writer of Second Chronicles (iv. 16) when he says, "These 
things did Hiram his father [in the original Hiram Abif~\ 

do for King Solomon." 56 

The legend relating to him is of no value as a mere narrative, 
but of vast importance in a symbolical point of view, as 
illustrating a great philosophical and religious truth ; name- 
ly, the dogma of the- immortality of the soul. • . . . 207 
Hence, Hiram Abif is the symbol of man in the abstract sense, 
or human nature, as developed in the life here and in the 
life to come. 231 

Hiram of Tyre. The king of Tyre, the friend and ally of 
King Solomon, whom he supplied with men and materials 
for building the temple. In the recent, or what I am in- 
clined to call the grand lecturer's symbolism of Masonry (a 
sort of symbolism for which I have very little veneration), 
Hiram of Tyre is styled the symbol of strength, as Hiram 
Abif is of beauty. But I doubt the antiquity or authentici- 
ty of any such symbolism. Hiram of Tyre can only be 
considered, historically, as being necessary to complete the 
myth and symbolism of Hiram Abif. The king of Tyre is 
an historical personage, and there is no necessity for trans- 
forming him into a symbol, while his historical character 
lends credit and validity to the philosophical myth of the 
third degree of Masonry 51 

Hiram the Builder. An epithet of Hiram Abif. For the full 

significance of the term, see the word Builder. . . .55 

Ho-hi. A cabalistic pronunciation of the tetragrammaton, or 
ineffable name of God ; it is most probably the true one ; 
and as it literally means he-she, it is supposed to denote the 
hermaphroditic essence of Jehovah, as containing within 
himself the male and the female principle, — the generative 
and the prolific energy of creation. ..... 187 

Hu. The sacred name of God among the Druids. Bryant sup- 
poses that by it they intended the Great Father Noah ; but 
it is very possible that it was a modification of the Hebrew 



34-0 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

tetragrammaton, being the last syllable read cabalisfically 
(see ho-lii) ; if so, it signified the great male principle of 
nature. But Hu, in Hebrew \jc\r» ls claimed by Talmudic 
writers to be one of the names of God ; and the passage in 
Isaiah xlii. 8, in the original ani Jehovah, Hu shemi, which 
is in the common version "I am the Lord; that is my 
name," they interpret, "I am Jehovah; my name is He." 185 
Hutchinson, William. A distinguished masonic writer of Eng- 
land, who lived in the eighteenth century. He is the author 
of "The Spirit of Masonry," published in 1775. This was 
the first English work of any importance that sought to give 
a scientific interpretation of the symbols of Freemasonry; 
it is, in fact, the earliest attempt of any kind to treat Free- 
masonry as a science of symbolism. Hutchinson, however, 
has to some extent impaired the value of his labors by con- 
tending that the institution is exclusively Christian in its 
character and design 235 

I 

Ih-ho. See Jlo-hi. 

Immortality of the Soul. This is one of the two religious 
dogmas which have always been taught in Speculative Ma- 
sonry 22 

It was also taught in all the Rites and Mysteries of antiquity. 229 
The doctrine was taught as an abstract proposition by the an- 
cient priesthood of the Pure or Primitive Freemasonry of 
antiquity, but was conveyed to the mind of the initiate, and 
impressed upon him by a scenic representation in the an- 
cient Mysteries, or the Spurious Freemasonry of the ancients. 230 

Incommunicable Name. The tetragrammaton, so called be- 
cause it was not common to, and could not be bestowed upon, 
nor shared by, any other being. It was proper to the true 
God alone. Thus Drusius (Tetragrammaton, sive de No- 
mine Dei proprio, p. 108) says, "Nomen quatuor literarum 
proprie et absolute non tribui nisi Deo vero. Unde doctores 
catholici dicunt incommunicabile [not common] esse crea- 
turae." , 175 

Ineffable Name. The tetragrammaton. So called because it 

is ineffabile, or unpronounceable. See Tetragrammaton. 175 

Intrusting, Rite of. That part of the ceremony of initiation 
which consists in communicating to the aspirant or candi- 
date the aporrheta, or secrets of the mystery. . . . 147 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 341 

Inunction. The act of anointing. This was a religious cere- 
mony practised from the earliest times. By the pouring on 
of oil, persons and things were consecrated to sacred pur- 
poses 174 

Investiture, Rite of. That part of the ceremony of initiation 
which consists of clothing the candidate masonically. It is 
a symbol of purity 130 

Ish Chotzeb= Hebrew ^sn lU^K? hewers of stones. The Fel- 
low Crafts at the temple of Solomon. (2 Chron. ii. 2.) . 91 

Ish Sabal. Hebrew ^20 ej^, hearers of burdens. The Ap- 
prentices at the temple of Solomon. (2 Chron. ii. 2.) . 91 



Jah. It is in Hebrew j-jh, whence Maimonides calls it " the two- 
lettered name," and derives it from the tetragrammaton, of 
which it is an abbreviation. Others have denied this, and 
assert that Jah is a name independent of Jehovah, but ex- 
pressing the same idea of the divine essenee. See Gataker, 
Be Norn. Tetrag. . . . . " . . . .176 

Jehovah. The incommunicable, ineffable name of God, in He- 
brew nlfT" 1 * and called, from the four letters of which it con- 
sists, the tetragrammaton, or four-lettered name. . . 177 



Labor. Since the article on the Symbolism of Labor was writ- 
ten, I have met with an address delivered in 1868 by brother 
Troue, before St. Peter's Lodge in Martinico, which con- 
tains sentiments on the relation of Masonry to labor which 
are well worth a translation from the original French. See 
Bulletin du Grand Orient de France, December, 1868. 

" Our name of Mason, and our emblems, distinctly announce 
that our object is the elevation of labor. 

"We do not, as masons, consider labor as a punishment in- 
flicted on man ; but on the contrary, we elevate it in our 
thought to the height of a religious act, which is the most 
acceptable to God because it is the most usefnl to man and 
to society. 

"We decorate ourselves with the emblems of labor to affirm 
that our doctrine is an incessant protest against the stigma 
branded on the law of labor, and which an error of appre- 
hension, proceeding from the ignorance of men in primitive 



342 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

times has erected into a dogma ; an error that has resulted 
in the production of this anti-social phenomenon which we 
meet with every day ; namely, that the degradation of the 
workman is the greater as his labor is more severe, and the 
elevation of the idler is higher as his idleness is more com- 
plete. But the study of the laws which maintain order in 
nature, released from the fetters of preconceived ideas, has 
led the Freemasons to that doctrine, far more moral than 
the contrary belief, that labor is not an expiation, but a law 
of harmony, from the subjection to which man cannot be 
released without impairing his own happiness, and deran- 
ging the order of creation. The design of Freemasons is, 
then, the rehabilitation of labor, which is indicated by the 
apron which we wear, and the gavel, the trowel, and the 
level, which are found among our symbols." 
Hence the doctrine of this work is, that Freemasonry teaches 

not only the necessity, but the nobility, of labor. . . 263 
And that labor is the proper worship due by man to God. . 265 

Ladder. A symbol of progressive advancement from a lower 
to a higher sphere, which is common to Masonry, and to 
many, if not all, of the ancient Mysteries 18 

Ladder, Brahminical. The symbolic ladder used in the Mys- 
teries of Brahma. It had seven steps, symbolic of the 
seven worlds of the Indian universe 118 

Ladder, Mithraitic. The symbolic ladder used in the Persian 
Mysteries of Mithras. It had seven steps, symbolic of the 
seven planets and the seven metals 116 

Ladder, Scandinavian. The symbolic ladder used in the 
Gothic Mysteries. Dr. Oliver refers it to the Yggrasil, or 
sacred ash tree. But the symbolism is either very abstruse 
or very doubtful. . . .119 

Ladder, Theological. The symbolic ladder of the masonic 
Mysteries. It refers to the ladder seen by Jacob in his vis- 
ion, and consists, like all symbolical ladders, of seven 
rounds, alluding to the four cardinal and the three theologi- 
cal virtues 118 

Lamb. A symbol of innocence. A very ancient symbol. . . 134 

Lamb, Paschal. See Paschal Lamb. 

Lambskin Apron. See Apron. 

Law, Oral. See Oral Law. 

Legend. A narrative, whether true or false, that has been tra- 
ditionally preserved from the time of its first oral communi- 
cation. Such is the definition of a masonic legend. The 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 343 

authors of the Conversations-Lexicon, referring to the monk- 
ish Lives of the Saints which originated in the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries, say that the title legend was given to 
all fictions which make pretensions to truth. Such a re- 
mark, however correct it may be in reference to these monk- 
ish narratives, which were often invented as ecclesiastical 
exercises, is by no means applicable to the legends of Free- 
masonry. These are not necessarily fictitious, but are either 
based on actual and historical facts which have been but 
slightly modified, or they are the offspring and expansion of 
some symbolic idea, in which latter respect they differ 
entirely from the monastic legends, which often have only 
the fertile imagination of some studious monk for the basis 

of their construction 198 

Legend of the Royal Arch Degree. Much of this legend 
is a mythical history ; but some portion of it is undoubtedly 
a philosophical myth. The destruction and the reedifica- 
tion of the temple, the captivity and the return of the cap- 
tives, are matters of history ; but many of the details have 
been invented and introduced for the purpose of giving form 

to a symbolic idea . 212 

Legend of the Third Degree. In all probability this legend 
is a mythical history, in which truth is very largely and pre- 
ponderatingly mixed with fiction. 212 

It is the most important and significant of the legendary sym- 
bols of Freemasonry 228 

Has descended from age to age by oral tradition, and has been 
preserved in every masonic rite. 229 

No essential alteration of it has ever been made in any ma- 
sonic system, but the interpretations of it have been various ; 
the most general one is, that it is a symbol of the resurrec- 
tion and the immortality of the soul 234 

Some continental writers have supposed that it was a symbol 
of the downfall of the Order of Templars, and its hoped-for 
restoration. In some of the high philosophical degrees it is 
supposed to be a symbol of the sufferings, death, and resur- 
rection of Christ. Hutchinson thought it a symbol of the 
decadence of the Jewish religion, and the rise of the Chris- 
tian on its ruins. Oliver says that it symbolically refers to 
the murder of Abel, the death of our race through Adam, 
and its restoration through Christ 285 

Ragon thinks that it is a symbol of the sun shorn of its vigor 
by the three winter months, and restored to generative 



344 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

power by the spring. And lastly, Des Etangs says that it is 
a symbol of eternal reason, whose enemies are the vices 
that deprave and finally destroy humanity 236 

But none of these interpretations, except the first, can be sus- 
tained 237 

Lettuce. The sacred plant of the Mysteries of Adonis ; a 

symbol of immortality, and the analogue of the acacia. . 257 
Level. One of the working tools of a Fellow Craft. It is a 

symbol of the equality of station of all men before God. . 95 
Liberal Arts and Sciences. In the seventh century, all 
learning was limited to the seven liberal arts and sciences ; 
their introduction into Freemasonry, referring to this theo- 
ry, is a symbol of the completion of human learning. . 223 
Light. It denotes truth and knowledge, and is so explained in 
all the ancient systems ; in initiation, it is not material but 
intellectual light that is sought. 148 

It is predominant as a symbol in all the ancient initiations. . 149 

There it was revered because it was an emanation from the 
sun, the common object of worship ; but the theory advanced 
by some writers, that the veneration of light originally pro- 
ceeded from its physical qualities, is not correct. . . 151 

Pythagoras called it the good principle in nature ; and the Cab- 
alists taught that eternal light filled all space before the crea- 
tion, and that after creation it retired to a central spot, and 
became the instrument of the Divine Mind in creating mat- 
ter 154 

It is the symbol of the autopsy, or the full perfection and fru- 
ition of initiation. 156 

It is therefore a fundamental symbol in Freemasonry, and 
contains within itself the very essence of the speculative 

science. 158 

Lingam. The phallus was so called by the Indian nations of the 

East. Sec Phallus. , 113 

Lodge. The place where Freemasons meet, and also the con- 
gregation of masons so met. The word is derived from the 
lodges occupied by the travelling Freemasons of the mid- 
dle ages 63 

It is a symbol of the world, or universe. .... 101 

Its form, an oblong square, is symbolic of the supposed ob- 
long form of the world as known to the ancients. . . 102 
Lost Word. There is a masonic myth that there was a certain 

word which was lost and afterwards recovered. . . .26 

It is not material what the word was, nor how lost, nor when 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 345 

recovered : the symbolism refers only to the abstract idea of 

a loss and a recovery 264 

It is a symbol of divine truth. 266 

The search for it was also made by the philosophers and 
priests in the Mysteries of the Spurious Freemasonry. . 268 

Lotus. The sacred plant of the Brahminical Mysteries, and 

the analogue of the acacia . 257 

It was also a sacred plant among the Egyptians. . . . 258 

Lustration. A purification by washing the hands or body in 
consecrated water, practised in the ancient Mysteries. See 
Purification. 

Lux (light). One of the appellations bestowed upon Freema- 
sonry, to indicate that it is that sublime doctrine of truth by 
which the pathway of him who has attained it is to be illu- 
mined in the pilgrimage of life. Among the Rosicrucians, 
light was the knowledge of the philosopher's stone ; and 
Mosheim says that in chemical language the cross was an 
emblem of light, because it contains within its figure the 
forms of the three figures of which LVX, or light, is com- 
posed 148 

Lux e Tenebris (light out of darkness). A motto of the Ma- 
sonic Order, which is equivalent to " truth out of initiation ; " 
light being the symbol of truth, and darkness the symbol of 
initiation commenced 157 



M 

Man. Repeatedly referred to by Christ and the apostles as the 

symbol of a temple 98 

Master Mason. The third degree of Ancient Craft Masonry, 

analogous to the epopt of the ancient Mysteries. . . 96 

Menatzchim. Hebrew Dij"l£2?2> superintendents, or overseers. 
The Master Masons at the temple of Solomon. (2 Chron. 
ii. 2.) 

Menu. In the Indian mythology, Menu is the son of Brahma, 
and the founder of the Hindoo religion. Thirteen other 
Menus are said to exist, seven of whom have already reigned 
on earth. But it is the first one whose instructions consti- 
tute the whole civil and religious polity of the Hindoos. The 
code attributed to him by the Brahmins has been translated 
by Sir William Jones, with the title of " The Institutes of 
Menu." 156 

Middle Chamber. A part of the Solomonic temple, which was 



346 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

approached by winding stairs, but which was certainly not 
appropriated to the purpose indicated in the Fellow Craft's 
degree. .......... 210 

The legend of the Winding Stairs is therefore only a philo- 
sophical myth. ......... 214 

It is a symbol of this life and its labors 226 

Mistletoe. The sacred plant of Druidism; commemorated 
also in the Scandinavian rites. It is the analogue of the 
acacia, and like all the other sacred plants of antiquity, is a 
symbol of the immortality of the soul. Lest the language 
of the text should be misunderstood, it may be remarked 
here that the Druidical and the Scandinavian rites are not 
identical. The former are Celtic, the latter Gothic. But 
the fact that in both the mistletoe was a sacred plant affords 
a violent presumption that there must have been a common 
point from which both religions started. There was, as I 
have said, an identity of origin for the same ancient and gen- 
eral symbolic idea 2G0 

Mithras. He was the god worshipped by the ancient Persians, 
and celebrated in their Mysteries as the symbol of the sun. 
In the initiation in these Mysteries, the candidate passed * 
through many terrible trials, and his courage and fortitude 
were exposed to the most rigorous tests. Among others, 
after ascending the mystical ladder of seven steps, he 
passed through a scenic representation of Hades, or the infer- 
nal regions ; out of this and the surrounding darkness he 
was admitted into the full light of Elysium, where he was 
obligated by an oath of secrecy, and invested by the Archi- 
magus, or High Priest, with the secret instructions of the 
rite, among which was a knowledge of the Ineffable Name. 26 

Mount Calvary. A small hill of Jerusalem, in a westerly di- 
rection, and not far from Mount Moriah. In the legends 
of Freemasonry it is known as "a small hill near Mount 
Moriah," and is referred to in the third degree. This 
"small hill " having been determined as the burial-place of 
Jesus, the symbol has been Christianized by many modern 
masons. .......... 241 

There are many masonic traditions, principally borrowed from 
the Talmud, connected with Mount Calvary ; such as, that 
it was the place where Adam was buried, &c. . . . 242 

Mount Moriah. The hill in Jerusalem on which the temple 
of Solomon was built. 

Myrtle. The sacred plant in the Eleusinian Mysteries, and, as 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 347 

symbolic of a resurrection and immortality, the analogue of 
the acacia 260 

Mysteries. A secret worship paid by the ancients to several 
of the pagan gods, to which none were admitted but those 
who had been solemnly initiated. The object of instruction 
in these Mysteries was, to teach the unity of God and the 
immortality of the soul. They were divided into Lesser 
and Greater Mysteries. The former were merely prepara- 
tory. In the latter the whole knowledge was communicated. 
Speaking of the doctrine that was communicated to the 
initiates, Philo Judseus says tbat "it is an incorruptible 
treasure, not like gold or silver, but more precious than 
everything beside ; for it is the knowledge of the Great 
Cause, and of nature, and of that which is born of both." 
And his subsequent language shows that there was a confra- 
ternity existing among the initiates like that of the masonic 
institution ; for he says, with his peculiar mysticism, "If you 
meet an initiate, besiege him with your prayers that he con- 
ceal from you no new mysteries that he may know ; and 
rest not until you have obtained them. For me, although I 
'was initiated into the Great Mysteries by Moses, the friend 
of God, yet, having seen Jeremiah, I recognized him not 
only as an Initiate, but as a Hierophant ; and I followed his 
school." So, too, the mason acknowledges every initiate as 
his brother, and is ever ready and anxious to receive all the 
light that can be bestowed on the Mysteries in which he has 
been indoctrinated 38 

Mystes. (From the Greek hvoj, to shut the eyes.) One who 
bad been initiated into the Lesser Mysteries of paganism. 
He was now blind, but when he was initiated into the Greater 
Mysteries he was called an Epopt, or one who saw. . . 44 

Myth. Grote's definition of the myth, which is cited in the 
text, may be applied without modification to the myths of 
Freemasonry, although intended by the author only for the 

myths of the ancient Greek religion 56 

The myth, then, is a narrative of remote date, not necessarily 
true or false, but whose truth can only be certified by inter- 
nal evidence. The word was first applied to those fables of 
the pagan gods which have descended from the remotest an- 
tiquity, and in all of which there prevails a symbolic idea, 
not always, however, capable of a positive interpretation. 
As applied to Freemasonry, the words myth and legend are 
synonymous. * 200 



34-3 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

From this definition it will appear that the myth is really only 
the interpretation of an idea. But how we are to read these 
myths will best appear from these noble words of Max Miil- 
ler : "Everything is true, natural, significant, if we enter 
with a reverent spirit into the meaning of ancient art and 
ancient language. Everything becomes false, miraculous, 
and unmeaning, if we interpret the deep and mighty words 
of the seers of old in the shallow and feeble sense of mod- 
ern chroniclers." (Science of Language, 2d Ser. p. 578.) . 213 

Myth, Historical. An historical myth is a myth that has a 
known and recognized foundation in historical truth, but 
with the admixture of a preponderating amount of fiction in 
the introduction of personages and circumstances. Be- 
tween the historical myth and the mythical history, the dis- 
tinction as laid down in the text cannot always be preserved, 
because we are not always able to determine whether there 
is a preponderance of truth or of fiction in the legend or 
narrative under examination. ...... 205 

Mythical History. A myth or legend in which the historical 
and truthful greatly preponderate over the inventions of fic- 
tion 205 

Mythology. Literally, the science of myths ; and this is a 
very appropriate definition, for mythology is the science 
which treats of the religion of the ancient pagans, which 
was almost altogether founded on myths, or popular tradi- 
tions and legendary tales ; and hence Keightly (Mythol. of 
Ancient Greece and Italy, p. 2) says that "mythology may 
be regarded as the repository of the early religion of the 
people." Its interest to a masonic student arises from the 
constant antagonism that existed between its doctrines and 
those of the Primitive Freemasonry of antiquity and the 
light that the mythological Mysteries throw upon the an- 
cient organization of Speculative Masonry. . . .56 

Myth, Philosophical. This is a myth or legend that is almost 
wholly unhistorical, and which has been invented only for 
the purpose of enunciating and illustrating a particular 
thought or dogma. ........ 205 

N 

Name. All Hebrew names are significant, and were originally 
imposed with reference to some fact or feature in the history 
or character of the persons receiving them. Camden says 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 349 

that the same custom prevailed among all the nations of an- 
tiquity. So important has this subject been considered, 
that " Onomastica," or treatises on the signification of names 
have been written by Eusebius and St. Jerome, by Simonis 
and Hillerus, and by several other scholars, of whom Eu- 
•sebe Salverte is the most recent and the most satisfactory. 
Shuckford (Connect, ii. 377) says that the Jewish Eabbins 
thought that the true knowledge of names was a science 
preferable to the study of the written law 187 

Name op God. The true pronunciation, and consequently the 
signification, of the name of God can only be obtained 

through a cabalistical interpretation 187 

It is a symbol Of divine truth. None but those who are famil- 
iar with the subject can have any notion of the importance 
bestowed on this symbol by the Orientalists. The Arabians 
have a science called Ism Allah, or the science of the name 
of God ; and the Talmudists and Rabbins have written copi- 
ously on the same subject. The Mussulmans, says Sal- 
verte (Essai sur les Noms, ii. 7), have one hundred names 
of God, which they repeat while counting the beads of a 
rosary. 197 

Neophyte-. (From the Greek riov and tpvibr, a new plant?) One 
who has been recently initiated in the Mysteries. St. Paul 
uses the same word (1 Tim. iii. 6) to denote one who had 
been recently converted to the Christian faith. . . . 162 

Noachid^e. The descendants of Noah, and the transmitters of 
his religious dogmas, which were the unity of God and the 
immortality of the soul. The name has from the earliest 
times been bestowed upon the Ereemasons, who teach the 
same doctrines. Thus in the "old charges," as quoted by 
Anderson (Const, edit. 1738, p. 143), it is said, "A mason is 
obliged by his tenure to observe the moral law as a true No- 
aehidas." ....... ^ .. 22 

Noachites. The same as Noachidce, which see. 

North. That part of the earth which, being most removed from 
the influence of the sun at his meridian height, is in Eree- 
masonry called " a place of darkness." Hence it is a sym- 
bol of the profane world 167 

North-east Corner. An important ceremony of the first de- 
gree, which refers to the north-east corner of the lodge, is 
explained by the symbolism of the corner-stone. . . 159 
The corner-stone of a building is always laid in the north-east 
corner, for symbolic reasons 165 



350 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

The north-east point of the heavens was especially sacred 
among the Hindoos 165 

In the symbolism of Freemasonry, the north refers to the 
outer or profane world, and the east to the inner world 
of Masonry; and hence the north-east is symbolic of the 
double position of the neophyte, partly in the darkness of 
the former, partly in the light of the latter. . . . 167 
Numbers. The symbolism of sacred numbers, which prevails 
very extensively in Freemasonry, was undoubtedly bor- 
rowed from the school of Pythagoras ; but it is just as likely 
that he got it from Egypt or Babylon, or from both. The 
Pythagorean doctrine was, according to Aristotle (Met. xii. • 
8), that ail things proceed from numbers. M. Dacier, how- 
ever, in his life of the philosopher, denies that the doctrine 
of numbers was taught by Pythagoras himself, but attributes 
it to his later disciples. But his arguments are not conclu- 
sive or satisfactory 225 

o 

Oath of Secrecy. It was always administered to the candi- 
date in the ancient Mysteries 43 

Odd Numbers. In the system of Pythagoras, odd numbers were 
symbols of perfection. Hence the sacred numbers of Free- 
masonry are all odd. They are 3, 5, 7, 9, 15, 27, 33, and 81. 219 

Oil. An element of masonic consecration, and, as a symbol of 
prosperity and happiness, is intended, under the name of the 
" oil of joy," to indicate the expected propitious results of 
the consecration of any thing or person to a sacred pur- 
pose 174 

Olive. In a secondary sense, the symbol of peace and of vic- 
tory ; but in its primary meaning, like all the other sacred 
plants of antiquity, a symbol of immortality ; and thus in 
the Mysteries it was the analogue of the acacia of the Free- 
masons. .......... 255 

Oliver. The Rev. George Oliver, D. D., of Lincolnshire, Eng- 
land, who died in 1868, is by far the most distinguished and 
the most voluminous of the English writers on Freemason- 
ry. Looking to his vast labors and researches in the arcana 
of the science, no student of masonry can speak of his name 
or his memory without profound reverence for his learning, 
and deep gratitude for the services that he has accomplished. 
To the author of this work the recollection will ever be 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 351 

most grateful that he enjoyed the friendship of so good and 
so great a man ; one of whom we may testify, as Johnson 
said of Goldsmith, that "nihil quod tetigit non ornavit." 
In his writings he has traversed the whole field of masonic 
literature and science, and has treated, always with great 
.ability and wonderful research, of its history, its antiquities, 
its rites and ceremonies, its ethics, and its symbols. Of all 
his works, his "Historical Landmarks," in two volumes, is 
the most important, the most useful, and the one which will 
perhaps the longest perpetuate his memory. In the study 
of his works, the student must be careful not to follow too 
implicitly all his conclusions. These were in his own mind 
controlled by the theory which he had adopted, and which 
he continuously maintained, that Freemasonry was a Chris- 
tian institution, and that the connection between it and the 
Christian religion was absolute and incontrovertible. He 
followed in the footsteps of Hutchinson, but with a far more 
expanded view of the masonic system. 

Operative Masonry. Masonry considered merely as a useful 
art, intended for the protection and the convenience of man 
by the erection of edifices which may supply his intellectual, 

religious, and physical wants 83 

In contradistinction to Speculative Masonry, therefore, it is 
said to be engaged in the construction of a material temple. 161 

Oral Law. The oral law among the Jews was the commen- 
tary on and the interpretation of the written contained in 
the Pentateuch ; and the tradition is, that it was delivered to 
Moses at the same time, accompanied by the divine com- 
mand, "Thou shalt not divulge the words which I have 
said to thee out of my mouth." The oral law was, there- 
fore, never intrusted to books ; but being preserved in the 
memories of the judges, prophets, priests, and wise men, 
was handed down from one to the other through a long suc- 
cession of ages. But after the destruction of Jerusalem by 
the Komans under Adrian, A. D. 135, and the final disper- 
sion of the Jews, fears being entertained that the oral law 
would be lost, it was then committed to writing, and now 
constitutes the text of the Talmud. 

Ormuzd. Worshipped by the disciples of Zoroaster as the prin- 
ciple of good, and symbolized by light. See Ahriman. . 153 

Osiris. The chief god of the ancient Egyptians, and wor- 
shipped as a symbol of the sun, and more philosophically 
as the male or generative principle. Isis, his wife, was the 



35 3 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

female or prolific principle ; and Horus, their child, was 
matter, or the world — the product of the two principles. . 27 

Osiris, Mysteries or. The Osirian Mysteries consisted in a 
scenic representation of the murder of Osiris by Typhon, 
the subsequent recovery of his mutilated body by Isis, and 
his deification, or restoration to immortal life. . . .39 

Oval Temples. Temples of an oval form were representations 

of the mundane egg, a symbol of the world. . . . 107 



Palm Tree. In its secondary sense the palm tree is a symbol 
of victory ; but in its primary signification it is a symbol of 
the victory over death, that is, immortality. . . . 255 

Parable. A narrative in which one thing is compared with 
another. It is in principle the same as a symbol or an alle- 
gory ....... 75 

Parallel Lines. The lines touching the circle in the symbol 
of the point within a circle. They are said to represent St. 
John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist; but they 
really refer to the solstitial points Cancer and Capricorn, in 
the zodiac 115 

Pastos. (From the Greek tcuctoc, a nuptial coucJi.) The cof- 
fin or grave which contained the body of the god or hero 
whose death was scenically represented in the ancient Mys- 
teries. 44 

It is the analogue of the grave in the third degree of Masonry. 239 

Pelasgian Religion. The Pelasgians were the oldest if not 
the aboriginal inhabitants of Greece. Their religion dif- 
fered from that of the Hellenes who succeeded them in be- 
ing less poetical, less mythical, and more abstract. We 
know little of their religious worship, except by conjecture; 
but we may suppose it resembled in some respects the doc- 
trines of the Primitive Freemasonry. Creuzer thinks that 
the Pelasgians were either a nation of priests or a nation 
ruled by priests . . 230 

Phallus. A representation of the virile member, which was 
venerated as a religious symbol very universally, and with- 
out the slightest lasciviousness, by the ancients. It was one 
of the modifications of sun Avorship, and was a symbol of 
the fecundating power of that luminary. The masonic 
point within a circle is undoubtedly of phallic origin. . . 112 

Philosophy op Freemasonry. The dogmas taught in the ma- 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 353 

sonic system constitute its philosophy. These consist in 
the contemplation of God as one and eternal, and of man as 
immortal. In other words, the philosophy of Freemasonry 
inculcates the unity of God and the immortality of the 
soul. 11 

Plumb. One of the working tools of a Fellow Craft, and a 

symbol of rectitude of conduct . 95 

Point within a Circle. It is derived from the ancient sun 
worship, and is in reality of phallic origin. It is a symbol 
of the universe, the sun being represented by the point, 
while the circumference is the universe Ill 

Porch of the Temple. A symbol of the entrance into life. . 220 

Primitive Freemasonry. The Primitive Freemasonry of the 
antediluvians is a term for which we are indebted to Oliver, 
although the theory was broached by earlier writers, and 
among them by the Chevalier Eamsay. The theory is, that 
the principles and doctrines of Freemasonry existed in the 
earliest ages of the world, and were believed and practised 
by a primitive people, or priesthood, under the name of 
Pure or Primitive Freemasonry. That this Freemasonry, 
that is to say, the religious doctrine inculcated by it, was, 
after the flood, corrupted by the pagan philosophers and 
priests, and, receiving the title of Spurious Freemasory, was 
exhibited in the ancient Mysteries. The Noachidae, how- 
ever, preserved the principles of the Primitive Freemasonry, 
and transmitted them to succeeding ages, when at length 
they assumed the name of Speculative Masonry. The Prim- 
itive Freemasonry was probably without ritual or symbol- 
ism, and consisted only of a series of abstract propositions 
derived from antediluvian traditions. Its dogmas were the 
unity of God and the immortality of the soul. . . .29 

Profane. One who has not been initiated as a Freemason. In 
the technical language of the Order, all who are not Free- 
masons are profanes. The term is derived from the Latin 
words pro fano, which literally signify " in front of the tem- 
ple," because those in the ancient religions who were not 
initiated in the sacred rites or Mysteries of any deity were 
not permitted to enter the temple, but were compelled to 
remain outside, or in front of it. They were kept on the 
outside. The expression a profane is not recognized as a 
noun substantive in the general usage of the language ; but 
it has been adopted as a technical term in the dialect of Free- 

23 



354 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

masonry, in the same relative sense in which the word lay- 
man is used in the professions of law and divinity. . . 168 

Pure Freemasonry of Antiquity. The same as Primitive 
Freemasonry, — which see. 

Purification. A religious rite practised hy the ancients, and 
which was performed before any act of devotion. It con- 
sisted in washing the hands, and sometimes the whole body, 
in lustral or consecrated water. It was intended as a sym- 
bol of the internal purification of the heart. It was a cere- 
mony preparatory to initiation in all the ancient Mysteries. 93 

Pythagoras. A Grecian philosopher, supposed to have been 
born in the island of Samos, about 584 B. C. He trav- 
elled extensively for the purpose of acquiring knowledge. 
In Egypt he was initiated in the Mysteries of that country 
by the priests. He also repaired to Babylon, where he be- 
came acquainted with the mystical learning of the Chalde- 
ans, and had, no doubt, much communication with the Israel- 
itish captives who had been exiled from Jerusalem, and were 
then dwelling in Babylon. On his return to Europe he es- 
tablished a school, which in its organization, as well as its 
doctrines, bore considerable resemblance to Speculative Ma- 
sonry ; for which reason he has been claimed as " an ancient 
friend and brother " by the modern Freemasons. . . 60 

R 

Resurrection. This doctrine was taught in the ancient Mys- 
teries, as it is in Freemasonry, by a scenic representation. 
The initiation was death, the autopsy was resurrection. 
Freemasonry does not interest itself with the precise mode 
of the resurrection, or whether the body buried and the body 
raised are in all their parts identical. Satisfied with the 
general teaching of St. Paul, concerning the resurrection 
that "it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual 
body," Freemasonry inculcates by its doctrine of the res- 
urrection the simple fact of a progressive advancement from 
a lower to a higher sphere, and the raising of the soul from 
the bondage of death to its inheritance of eternal life. . 157 

Ritual. The forms and ceremonies used in conferring the de- 
grees, or in conducting the labors, of a lodge are called the 
ritual. There are many rites of Freemasonry, which differ 
from each other in the number and division of the degrees, 
and in their rituals, or forms and ceremonies. But the great 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 355 

principles of Freemasonry, its philosophy and its symbol- 
ism, are alike in all. It is evident, then, that in an investi- 
gation of the symbolism of Freemasonry, we have no con- 
cern with its ritual, which is but an outer covering that is 
intended to conceal the treasure that is within. . . .11 

Rosicrucians. A sect of hermetical philosophers, founded in 
the fifteenth century, who were engaged in the study of ab- 
struse sciences. It was a secret society much resembling 
the masonic in its organization, and in some of the subjects 
of its investigation ; but it was in no other way connected 
with Freemasonry. It is, however, well worth the study of 
the masonic student on account of the light that it throws 
upon many of the masonic symbols 1.56 

Royal Art. Freemasonry is so called because it is supposed 
to have been founded by two kings, — the kings of Israel 
and Tyre, — and because it has been subsequently encour- 
aged and patronized by monarchs in all countries. . . 69 

s 

Sabianism, or Sabaism. The worship of the sun, moon, and 
stars, the Eifc^n JO!2> Tsaba Hashmaim, "the host of 
heaven." It was practised in Persia, Chaldea, India, and 
other Oriental countries, at an early period of the world's 
history. Sun-worship has had a powerful influence on sub- 
sequent and more rational religions, and relics of it are to 
be found even in the symbolism of Freemasonry. . . 26 

Sacelldm. A sacred place consecrated to a god, and contain- 
ing an altar. 149 

Sainte Croix. The work of the Baron de Sainte Croix, in two 
volumes, entitled, " Recherches Historiques et Critiques sur 
les Mysteres du Paganisme," is one of the most valuable 
and instructive works that Ave have in any language on the 
ancient Mysteries, — those religious associations wiiose his- 
tory and design so closely connect them with Freemasonry. 
To the student of masonic philosophy and symbolism this 
work of Sainte Croix is absolutely essential. . . .16 

Salsette. An island in the Bay of Bombay, celebrated for stu- 
pendous caverns excavated artificially out of the solid rock, 
and which were appropriated to the initiations in the ancient 
Mysteries of India 108 

Senses, Five Human. A symbol of intellectual cultivation. . 222 

Seth. It is the masonic theory that the principles of the Pure 



356 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

or Primitive Freemasonry were preserved in the race of 
Seth, which had always kept separate from that of Cain, 
but that after the flood they became corrupted, by a seces- 
sion of a portion of the Sethites, who established the Spu- 
rious Freemasonry of the Gentiles. 

Seven. A sacred number among the Jews and the Gentiles, 

and called by Pythagoras a "venerable number." . . 120 

Shem Hamphorash. (tt^i&jrjn DIE? the declaratory name.) The 
tetragrammaton is so called, because, of all the names of 
God, it alone distinctly declares his nature and essence as 
self-existent and eternal. 181 

Shoe. See Investiture, Rite of. 

Signs. There is abundant evidence that they were used in the 
ancient Mysteries. They are valuable only as modes of 
recognition. But while they are absolutely conventional, 
they have, undoubtedly, in Freemasonry, a symbolic refer- 
ence 213 

Siva. One of the manifestations of the supreme deity of the 

Hindoos, and a symbol of the sun in its meridian. . . 108 

Sons of Light. Freemasons are so called because Lux, or 

Light, is one of the names of Speculative Masonry. . . 158 

Solomon. Tbe king of Israel, and the founder of the temple of 

Jerusalem and of the temple organization of Freemasonry. 81 
That his mind was eminently symbolic in its propensities, is 
evident from all the writings that are attributed to him. . 82 

Speculative Masonry. Freemasonry considered as a science 
which speculates on the character of God and man, and is 
engaged in philosophical investigations of the soul and a 
future existence, for which purpose it uses the terms of an 

operative art 84: 

It is engaged symbolically in the construction of a spiritual 

temple. 161 

There is in it always a progress — an advancement from a 
lower to a higher sphere 261 

Spiritual Temple. Tbe body of man ; that temple alluded to 
by Christ and St. Paul ; the temple, in the construction of 
which the Speculative Mason is engaged, in contradistinc- 
tion to that material temple which occupies the labors of the 
Operative Mason. 162 

Spurious Freemasonry of Antiquity. A term applied to the 
initiations in the Mysteries of the ancient pagan world, and 
to the doctrines taught in those Mysteries. See Mysteries. 32 

Square. A geometric figure consisting of four equal sides and 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 357 

equal angles. In Freemasonry it is a symbol of morality, or 
the strict performance of every duty. The Greeks deemed 
it a figure of perfection, and the " square man " was a man 
of unsullied integrity 163 

Square, Trying. One of the working-tools of a Fellow Craft, 

and a symbol of morality 95 

Stone of Foundation. A very important symbol in the ma- 
sonic system. It is like the word, the symbol of divine 
truth 281 

Stone Worship. A very early form of fetichism. The Pelas- 
gians are supposed to have given to their statues of the gods 
the general form of cubical stones, whence in Hellenic times 
came the Hermae, or images of Hermes. .... 293 

Substitute Word. A symbol of the unsuccessful search after 
divine truth, and the discovery in this life of only an approx- 
imation to it. 268 

Sun, Eising. In the Sabian worship the rising sun was adored 
on its resurrection from the apparent death of its evening 
setting. Hence, in the ancient Mysteries, the rising sun was 
a symbol of the regeneration of the soul. . . . . 231 

Sun-worship. The most ancient of all superstitions. It pre- 
vailed especially in Phoenicia, Chaldea, and Egypt, and traces 
of it have been discovered in Peru and Mexico. Its influ- 
ence was felt in the ancient Mysteries, and abundant allu- 
sions to it are to be found in the symbolism of Freema- 
sonry 109 

Swedenborg. A Swedish philosopher, and the founder of a re- 
ligious sect. Clavel, Pagon, and some other writers have 
sought to make him the founder of a masonic rite also, but 
without authority. In 1767 Chastanier established the rite 
of Illuminated Theosophists, whose instructions are derived 
from the writings of Swedenborg, but the sage himself had 
nothing to do with it. Yet it cannot be denied that the mind 
of Swedenborg was eminently symbolic in character, and 
that the masonic student may derive many valuable ideas 
from portions of his numerous works, especially from his 
" Celestial Arcana " and his " Apocalypse Revealed." . 274 

Symbol. A visible sign with which a spiritual feeling, emotion, 
or idea is connected. — Mailer. Every natural thing which 
is made the sign or representation* of a moral idea is a 
symbol 73 

Symbol, Compound. A species of symbol not unusual in Free- 
masonry, where the symbol is to be taken in a double sense, 



358 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

meaning in its general application one thing, and then in a 

special application another. 306 

Symbolism, Science op. To what has been said in the text, 
may be added the following apposite remarks of Squier: 
" In the absence of a written language or forms of expres- 
sion capable of conveying abstract ideas, we can readily 
comprehend the necessity, among a primitive people, of a 
symbolic system. That symbolism in a great degree re- 
sulted from this necessity, is very obvious ; and that, asso- 
ciated with man's primitive religious systems, it was 
afterwards continued, when in the advanced stage of the 
human mind, the previous necessity no longer existed, is 
equally undoubted. It thus came to constitute a kind of 
sacred language, and became invested with an esoteric sig- 
nificance understood only by the few." — The Serpent Sym- 
bol in America, p. 19. 71 

T 

Tabernacle. Erected by Moses in the wilderness as a tempo- 
rary place for divine worship. It was the antitype of the 
temple of Jerusalem, and, like it, was a symbol of the 
universe " 79 

Talisman. A figure either carved in metal or stone, or delineat- 
ed on parchment or paper, made with superstitious ceremo- 
nies under what was supposed to be the special influence of 
the planetary bodies, and believed to possess occult powers of 
protecting the maker or possessor from danger. The figure 
in the text is a talisman, and among the Orientals no talis- 
man was more sacred than this one where the nine digits 
are so disposed as to make 15 each way. The Arabians 
called it zahal, which was the name of the planet Saturn, 
because the nine digits added together make 45, and the 
letters of the word zahal are, according to the numerical 
powers of the Arabic alphabet, equivalent to 45. The cab- 
alists esteem it because 15 was the numerical power of the 
letters composing the word JAH, which is one of the names 
of God 225 

Talmud. The mystical philosophy of the Je • :h Rabbins is 
contained in the Talmud, which is a collection of books 
divided into two parts, the Mishna, which contains the rec- 
ord of the oral law, first committed to writing in the second 
or third century, and the Gemara, or commentaries on it. In 



3 



:> 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 359 

the Talmud much will be found of great interest to the ma- 
sonic student 285 

Temple. The importance of the temple in the symbolism of 
Freemasonry will authorize the following citation from the 
learned Montfaucon {Ant. ii. 1. ii. ch. ii.) : " Concerning the 
origin of temples, there is a variety of opinions. According to 
Herodotus, the Egyptians were the first that made altars, stat- 
ues, and temples. It does not, however, appear that there were 
any in Egypt in the time of Moses, for he never mentions 
them, although lie had many opportunities for doing so. 
Luciansays that the Egyptians were the first people who built 
temples, and that the Assyrians derived the custom from them, 
all of which is, however, very uncertain. The first allusion 
to the subject in Scripture is the Tabernacle, which was, in 
fact, a portable temple, and contained one place within it 
more holy and secret than the others, called the Holy of 
Holies, and to which the adytum in the pagan temples cor- 
responded. The first heathen temple mentioned in Scrip- 
ture is that of Dagon, the god of the Philistines. The 
Greeks, who were indebted to the Phoenicians for many 
things, may be supposed to have learned from them the art 
of building temples ; and it is certain that the Eomans bor- 
rowed from the Greeks both the worship of the gods and the 
construction of temples." 268 

Temple Builder. The title by which Hiram Abif is sometimes 

designated. 229 

Temple of Solomox. The building erected by King Solomon 
on Mount Moriah, in Jerusalem, has been often called " the 
cradle of Freemasonry," because it was there that that union 
took place between the operative and speculative masons, 
which continued for centuries afterwards to present the true 

organization of the masonic system 16 

As to the size of the temple, the dimensions given in the text 
may be considered as accurate so far as they agree with the 
description given in the First Book of Kings. Josephus gives 
a larger measure, and makes the length 105 feet, the breadth 
35 feet, and the height 210 feet; but even these will not in- 
validate the statement in the text, that in size it was sur- 
passed by many a parish church 81 

Temple Symbolism. That symbolism which is derived from 
the temple of Solomon. It is the most fertile of all kinds 
of symbolism in the production of materials for the masonic 
science. 85 ■ 



3^° SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

Tebmintts. One of the most ancient of the Roman deities. He 
was the god of boundaries and landmarks, and his statue 
consisted only of a cubical stone, without arms or legs, to 

show that he was immovable. 170 

Tetractys. A figure used by Pythagoras, consisting of ten 
points, arranged in a triangular form so as to represent the 
monad, duad, triad, and quarterniad. It was considered as 
very sacred by the Pythagoreans, and was to them what the 

tetragrammaton was to the Jews 184 

Tetragrammaton. (From the Greek rfrnag, four, and ynuu- 
/u«, a letter.) The four-lettered name of God in the He- 
brew language, which consisted of four letters, viz. |f!j"pj 
commonly, but incorrectly, pronounced Jehovah. As a sym- 
bol it greatly pervaded the rites of antiquity, and was per- 
haps the earliest symbol corrupted by the Spurious Freema- 
sonry of the pagan Mysteries. 175 

It was held by the Jews in profound veneration, and its origin 
supposed to have been by divine revelation at the burning 
bush 176 

The word was never pronounced, but wherever met with 
Adonai was substituted for it, which custom was derived 
from the perverted reading of a passage in the Pentateuch. 
The true pronunciation consequently was utterly lost ; this 
is explained by the want of vowels in the Hebrew alphabet, 
so that the true vocalization of a word cannot be learned 
from the letters of which it is composed. .... 178 

The true pronunciation was intrusted to the high priest; 
but lest the knowledge of it should be lost by his sudden 
death, it was also communicated to his assistant; it was 
known also, probably, to the kings of Israel. . . . 180 

The Cabalists and Talmudists enveloped it in a host of super- 
stitions. . 181 

It was also used by the Essenes in their sacred rites, and by 
the Egyptians as a pass-word 182 

Cabalistically read and pronounced, it means the male and 
female principle of nature, the generative and prolific en- 
ergy of creation. ........ 185 

Thammuz. A Syrian god, who was worshipped by those women 
of the Hebrews who had fallen into idolatry. The idol was 
the same as the Phoenician Adonis, and the Mysteries of the 

two were identical. 42 

Travelling, Freemasons. See Freemasons, Travelling. 
Trestle Board. The board or tablet on which the designs of 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 36 1 

the architect are inscribed. It is a symbol of the moral law 

as set forth in the revealed will of God 88 

Every man must have his trestle board, because it is the duty 
of every man to work out the task which God, the chief 
Architect, has assigned to him 263 

Triangle. A symbol of Deity. 181 

This symbolism is found in many of the ancient religions. . 182 
Among the Egyptians it was a symbol of universal nature, or 
of the protection of the world by the male and female en- 
ergies of creation. 195 

Triangle, Radiated. A triangle placed within a circle of rays. 
In Christian art it is a symbol of God ; then the rays are 
called a glory. When they surround the triangle in the form 
of a circle, the triangle is a symbol of the glory of God. 
When the rays emanate from the centre of the triangle, it 
is a symbol of divine light. This is the true form of the 
masonic radiated triangle 195 

Triliteral Name. This is the word AUM, which is the ineffa- 
ble name of God among the Hindoos, and symbolizes the 
three manifestations of the Brahminical supreme god, Brah- 
ma, Siva, and Vishnu. It was never to be pronounced 
aloud, and was analogous to the sacred tetragrammaton of 
the Jews 183 

Trowel. One of the working tools of a Master Mason. * It is 

a symbol of brotherly love 97 

Trcth. It was not always taught publicly by the ancient phi- 
losophers to the people 33 

The search for it is the object of Freemasonry. It is never 
found on earth, but a substitute for it^ is provided. . . 306 

Tuapholl. A term used by the Druids to designate an unhal- 
lowed circumambulation around the sacred cairn, or altar, 
the movement being against the sun, that is, from west to 
east by the north, the cairn being on the left hand of the cir- 
cumambulator 140 

Tubal Cain. Of the various etymologies of this name, only 
one is given in the text ; but most of the others in some way 
identify him with Vulcan. Wellsford (Mithridates Minor^ 
p. 4) gives a singular etymology, deriving the name of the 
Hebrew patriarch from the definite article j-j, converted into 
ft , or T and Baal, " Lord," with the Arabic kayn, " a black- 
smith," so that the word would then signify " the lord of the 
blacksmiths." Masonic writers have, however, generally 
adopted the more usual derivation of Cain, from a word sig- 



362 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

nifying jyossession ; and Oliver descants on Tubal Cain as a 
symbol of worldly possessions. As to the identity of Vul- 
can with Tubal Cain, we may learn something from the def- 
inition of the offices of the former, as given by Diodorus 
Siculus : "Vulcan was the first founder of works in iron, 
brass, gold, silver, and all fusible metals ; and he taught 
the uses to which fire can be applied in the arts." See Gen- 
esis : " Tubal Cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass 
and iron." 

Twenty-four Ixcii Gauge. A two-foot rule. One of the 
working-tools of an Entered Apprentice, and a symbol of 
time well employed 92 

Typiion. The brother and slayer of Osiris in the Egyptian my- 
thology. As Osiris was a type or symbol of the sun, Ty- 
phon was the symbol of Avinter, when the vigor, heat, and, 
as it were, life of the sun are destroyed, and of darkness as 
opposed to light 108 

Tyre. A city of Phoenicia, the residence of King Hiram, the 
friend and ally of Solomon, whom he supplied with men 
and materials for the construction of the temple. . . 49 

Tyrian Freemasons. These were the members of the Society 
of Dionysiac Artificers, who at the time of the building of 
Solomon's temple flourished at Tyre. Many of them were 
sent to Jerusalem by Hiram, King of Tyre, to assist King 
Solomon in the construction of his temple. There, uniting 
with the Jews, who had only a knowledge of the speculative 
principles of Freemasonry, which had been transmitted to 
them from ^oah, through the patriarchs, the Tyrian Free- 
masons organized that combined system of Operative and v 
Speculative Masonry which continued for many centuries, 
until the beginning of the eighteenth, to characterize the 
institution. See Dionysiac Artificers. . ... . 2G9 



u 

Union. The union of the operative with the speculative ele- 
ment of Freemasonry took place at the building of King 
Solomon's temple. 

Unity of God. This, as distinguished from the pagan doctrine 
of polytheism, or a multitude of gods, is one of the two re- 
ligious truths taught in Speculative Masonry, the other being 
the immortality of the soul. 22 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 363 



w 

Weary Sojourners. The legend of the " three weary sojourn- 
ers " in the Royal Arch degree is undoubtedly a philosoph- 
ical myth, symbolizing the search after truth. . . . 212 

White. A symbol of innocence and purity 132 

Among the Pythagoreans it was a symbol of the good princi- 
ple in nature, equivalent to light. 154 

Widow's Son. An epithet bestoAved upon the chief architect 
of the temple, because he was "a widow's son of the tribe 
of Naphthali." 1 Kings vii. 14 51 

Winding Stairs, Legend op. A legend in the Pellow Craft's 
degree having no historical truth, but being simply a philo- 
sophical myth or legendary symbol intended to communi- 
cate a masonic dogma. 210 

It is the symbol of an ascent from a lower to a higher sphere. 217 
It commences at the porch of the temple, which is a symbol 

of the entrance into life. . 218 

The number of steps are always odd, because odd numbers are 

a symbol of perfection. 219 

But the fifteen steps in the American system are a symbol of 
the name of God, Jah. . . . . . . . 225 

Wine. An element of masonic consecration, and, as a symbol 
of the inward refreshment of a good conscience, is intended 
under the name of the "wine of refreshment," to remind us 
of the eternal refreshments which the good are to receive in 
the future life for the faithful performance of duty in the 
present. . 173 

Word. In Preemasonry this is a technical and symbolic term, 
and signifies divine truth. The search after this Avord con- 
stitutes the whole system of speculative masonry. . . 306 

Word, Lost. See Lost Word. 

Word, Substitute. See Substitute Word. 

Work. In Preemasonry the initiation of a candidate is called 
work. It is suggestive of the doctrine that labor is a ma- 
sonic dutv 266 



Yggdrasil. The sacred ash tree in the Scandinavian Myste- 
ries. Dr. Oliver propounds the theory that it is the ana- 
logue of the theological ladder in the Masonic Mysteries. 
But it is doubtful whether this theory is tenable. . .119 



364 SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

Yod. A Hebrew letter, in form thus h, and about equivalent to 
the English I or Y. It is the initial letter of the tetragram- 
maton, and is often used, especially enclosed within a tri- 
angle, as a substitute for, or an abridgment of, that sacred 

word 181 

It is a symbol of the life-giving and sustaining power of God. 190 

Yoni. Among the nations and religions of India the yoni was 
the representation of the female organ of generation, and 
was the symbol of the prolific power of nature. It is the 
same as the cteis among the Occidental nations. . . .113 



Zennaar. The sacred girdle of the Hindoos. It is supposed 

to be the analogue of the masonic apron. .... 131 

Zoroaster. A distinguished philosopher and reformer, whose 
doctrines were professed by the ancient Persians. The re- 
ligion of Zoroaster was a dualism, in which the two antago- 
nizing principles were Ormuzd and Ahriman, symbols of 
Light and Darkness. It was a modification and purification 
of the old fire-worship, in which the fire became a symbol of 
the sun, so that it was really a species of sun-worship. 
Mithras, representing the sun, becomes the mediator be- 
tween Ormuzd, or the principle of Darkness, and the world. 108 



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I. 

A Manual Of the Lodge ; Or, Monitorial Instructions in the Degrees 
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symbolism, of which in the ordinary lectures of the lodge he has received only the faint outline- 
Many who anxiously desire to obtain "more light" on the obscure subject of Masonic Symbolism, 
and who would, if possible, learn more of the true signification of the emblems and allegories, are 
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author has made no innovations, but lias sought to accommodate the order of ceremonies to the sys- 
tem of lectures long since adopted and now generally prevailing in this country. 

II. 

The Book Of the Chapter ; Or, Monitorial Instructions in the De- 
grees of Mark, Past and Most Excellent Master, and the Holy Royal Arch. 
By Albert G. Mackey, M. D., General Grand High Priest of the General 
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Eoyal Arch Chapter of South Carolina, &c, &c. One volume, 12mo, hand- 
somely bound in scarlet. Price $1.60. 
Many Masons, although willing, and indeed anxious, as soon as they are initiated, to learn some- 
thing more of the nature of the institution into which they have been introduced, and of the mean- 
ing of the ceremonies through which they have passed, are very often unable, from the want of 
time or means, to indulge this laudable curiosity. The information which they require is to be 
found only in the pages of various masonic treatises, and to be acquired only by careful and 
laborious study. Books are not always accessible, or, if accessible, leisure or inclination may be 
wanting to institute the necessary investigations. 

But a " Monitor' 1 is within every Mason's reach. It is the first book to which his attention is di- 
rected, and is often placed in his hands by the presiding officer, as a manual which he is recom- 
mended to study; and, accordingly, the Monitor is to many a Mason, emphatically his vade mecum. 
But unless he can find something more important in its pages than such works as those of WEBB 
and CROSS contain, he will scarcely arise from the perusal with increased store of knowledge. 
His want is for 'more light," not for a recapitulation of what he has already heard and seen, but 
for a rational explanation of the meaning of that through which he has passed. 



To meet this want, and to place in the hands of every Royal Arch Mason a book in which he may 
find a lucid explanation, so far as the laws of our institution will permit, of all that has excited his 
curiosity or attracted his interest in the Chapter degrees, and above all, to furnish an elementary 
treatise of easy comprehension on the Symbolism of lioyal Arch Masonry, have been the objects of 
the author iu the preparation of this work. 

ni. 

Cryptic MaSOnry. A Manual of the Council : or Monitorial Instructions 
in the degrees of lioyal and Select Master : with an additional Section on 
the Super Excellent Master's Degree. By Albert G. Mackey, M. 1) 
Author of " Lexicon of Free-Masonry," " Manual of Lodge," Book of the 
Chapter," &c, &c. One volume, 12mo. Handsomely bound. Price $2.00. 

No separate Monitor of the Council Degrees has ever before been published. This volume will be 
found, like the preceding Monitors by Dr. Mackey, not a mere collection of scriptural passages and 
charges to candidates, but to contain information on points of masonic science and history, a 
knowledge of which is essentially necessary to a thorough comprehension of the moral desigu and 
Bymbolism of these degrees. 

IV. 

A Text-Book of Masonic Jurisprudence; illustrating the 

Written and Unwritten Law of Free-Masonry. By Albert G. Mackey, 
M. D., Author of "Masonic Lexicon," "Book of Chapter," "Manual o£ 
Lodge," &c. One large 12mo volume of 570 pages. Price $2.50. 

Contents: Book I. Foundations of Masonic Law. Chapter 1. The Landmarks, or the Un- 
written Law. Chapter 2. Tlie Written Law. Book II. Law relating to Candidates. Chap- 
ter 1. The Qualifications of Candidates. Chapter 2. The Petition of Candidates. Chapter il. 
Balloting for Candidates. Chapter 4. Consequences of Rejection. Book III. Relating to In- 
dividual Masons. Chapter 1. Of Entered Apprentices. Chapter 2. Of Fellow-Crafts. Chap- 
ters. Of Master Masons. Chapter 4. Of Past Masters. Chapters. Of unaffiliated Masons. 
Book IV. Law relating to Lodges. Chapter 1. The Nature of a Lodge. Chapter 2. The 
Bight of Subordinate Lodges. Chapter 3. The Officers of a Lodge. Chapter 4. Rules of 
Order. Book V. Law Relating to Grand Lodges. Chapter 1. The Nature of a Grand Lodge. 
Chapter 2. The Powers of a Grand Lodge. Chapter 3. The Officers of a Grand Lodge. 
Book VI. Masonic Crimes and Punishments. Chapter 1. Masonic Crimes. Chapter 2. Ma- 
Bonic Punishments. Chapter 3. Masonic Restoration. Chapter 4. Penal Jurisdiction. 
Chapter 5. Masonic Trials. 

The reputation of the distinguished author is a sufficient guarautee that this volume will be 
found an invaluable work on the Principles of Masonic Law. It .should be in the hands of every 
Mason who desires to be thoroughly informed in the jurisprudence of the order. This work should 
be one of the first placed in every masonic library or lodge-room. 

Y. 

Mackey'S MaSOniC Ritualist; Or, Monitorial Instructions in the De- 
grees from Entered Apprentice to Select Master. By A. Gr. Mackey, M. D. 
Author of "Manual of the Lodge," " Book of the Chapter," &c, &c. One 
handsome volume, 32mo. Pocket edition. Handsomely bound in cloth. 
Price $1.25. Tucks, gilt edges. Price $1.60. 

Contents: First. — Complete Monitorial Instructions of the Lodge, with all the Ceremonies of the 
Order of Past Master, relating to installations, dedications, consecrations, laying of corner- 
stones, funeral service, regulations of processions, &c. ; also the twenty-five Landmarks of 
Freemasonry, old Charges and General Regulations &c., &c. Second. — A complete Monitor for 
the Chapter, with a History of Royal Arch Masonry, all the Ceremonies of the Order for Con- 
secrations, Installations, General Visitations, Form of Processions, Constitutional Rules, Forms 
for all kinds of Documents for the Chapter, Ac, &c. Third. — A Manual of the Council with 
the Super-Excellent Master Degrees, all fully and beautifully illustrated with symbolical en- 
gravings, and arranged on the admirable plan which has made Dr. Mackey' s works the standard 
throughout all parts of the United States. 
The Publishers do not hesitate to say to the Masonic public that they will find this Monitor far 

more complete in every respect than any other work of the kind published. 

I'utollslnecl toy CI^RK «& M^YIV^rei}, 

No. 5 Barclay Street, New York. 



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terms given. 

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The True fflaSOIliC Guide. Containing Elucidations of the Funda- 
mental Principles of Free-Masonry. By Robert Macoy. 12mo, muslin. 
Price $1.60. 

MaCOy'S MaSOiliC Manual. Revised Edition. Containing Elucida- 
tions of tlie Principles of Free-Masonry, as contained in the Degrees of the 
Lodge, Chapter, and Commandery, together with forms of Masonic Docu- 
ments, Notes, Songs, Dates, &c, &c. Illustrated by three hundred engrav- 
ings. By Robert Macoy, P. M., P. G. S., &c. 82mo, muslin, gilt edges. 
Price $1.00. 

The Same. Tucks, gilt edges. Price $1.50. 

MaCOy 'S Master Workman. Containing Elucidations of the Sym- 
bolic Degrees of Free-Masonry. Illustrated by two hundred engravings 
32mo, muslin, gilt edges. Price CO cents. 

Sickels'S MaSOniC MOllitOr. Containing the Degrees of Free-Masonry 
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with nearly three hundred symbolic illustrations, together with Tactics and 
Drill of Masonic Knighthood ; also, forms of Masonic Documents, Notes, 
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The Same. Tucks, gilt edges. Price $1.50. 

Webb'S Monitor. Miniature Edition. Edited by Robert Morris. 

Muslin, price 60 cents. Tucks, gilt edges, $1.00. 

The Book of Marks for the Chapter. 4to. 100 Marks. Pri*>e$3.5a 

The Same. 4to. 150 Marks. Price $4.00. 
The Same. 4to. 200 Marks, Price $4.50. 



DIPLOMAS. 

Diplomas elegantly engraved and ornamented with beautiful 
emblematic designs. 

If you want a beautiful Diploma, get one of Clark & Maynard'B. 

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fhe Same. Plate paper, for framing. Price 75 cents. 

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CLARK & MAYNARD keep a complete stock of all the Masonic Works 
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Address — 

CLARK & MAYNARD, Publishers, 

5 Barclay Street, 

New York. 



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